Red Tories

Jeremy Corbyn has never been very keen on parliamentary democracy. He may be changing his mind now. The British electoral system has allowed him to strip the Conservatives of their majority, an extraordinary result that not even he had thought possible. As a reward, he can watch the government squirm as well as shape its policy. All he needs to do is threaten a vote which Theresa May thinks she might lose, and she buckles — as we are now witnessing.

For some time, the Prime Minister had stood firm on the public sector pay cap, arguing that when you factor in generous pensions, the average government worker is still paid 10 per cent more than their private sector counterpart. But the Tories have lost the argument on this and now fear they’d lose a vote if they stuck to their guns. Backbench Conservative MPs are nervous of the political traction which it might give Corbyn if they voted for the pay freeze now.