Tory MPs see gains on justice and home affairs opt-outs

Justice and Home Affairs ministers have spent a muggy afternoon in the Commons slogging through several hours of tetchy questions from backbenchers about the government’s plan to opt out of European Union justice and home affairs measures, before opting back in to the ones the government has decided it likes. It’s at times like this that anyone other than Theresa May, who spent a considerable amount of time hopping up and down to take endless interventions from her own Tory colleagues, would start to wonder whether the party leadership really was a prize worth working so hard for, given the amount of reassurance MPs need on just one policy area. But the Home Secretary and her colleague Chris Grayling remained extraordinarily patient throughout. In the end, the government won its motion on opting out of the measures 341 votes to 244. This will now be followed by reports from the Home Affairs Select Committee, the Justice Select Committee and the European Scrutiny Committee on the measures the government plans to opt back in to.