Tonight’s the night

There’s no rest for the wicked. Conservative whips have spent a frantic summer urging Tory opponents of electoral reform to retreat from their opposition. According to Paul Goodman, the whips have been blunt: the government could collapse if its reform bill is defeated tonight. Their scaremongering seems to have had the desired effect. The Financial Times reports:

‘Members of that group told the FT they were likely to advocate not opposing the government now, but supporting amendments at a later stage on the timing and threshold of the referendum in future debates.’

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The Mail carries a similar report, with David Davis anointing himself rebel-in-chief and stating that he hopes to ‘get the bill modified to take on board certain things’.

There is a sense that this rebellion’s scale was exaggerated. The rebels look disparate.