Tories split between rival parties

David Cameron is holding another one of his parliamentary party meetings this evening to discuss party strategy and rally the troops. Normally these things are quite well-attended, save a few conscientious objectors who think these events are an attempt by Downing Street to undermine the 1922 Committee. But today’s one might look a little quieter, or at least see some MPs slipping out early.

The reason is that David Davis is holding one of his very good parties in the ‘naughty corner’ of Portcullis House tonight. His was organised first – and it is one of those parties that those invited never fail to turn up to because they’re good fun, there’s a ready supply of alcohol, Davis has a lovely view of the river from his corner office and you only tend to get invited if you’re an interesting sort of MP. A few years ago, Number 10 organised a rival party to a summer bash that Davis was holding in an attempt to make his seem boring and poorly-attended, but what actually happened was that the MPs invited to both went to the loyalists’ one first, got bored, and turned up at the Davis party anyway to carry on gossiping.