Earlier yesterday, in the wake of Suella Braverman’s resignation, it was reported that Wendy Morton and her deputy, Craig Whittaker, had both resigned.
The reason appears to have been that, first, it was confirmed earlier today that yesterday afternoon’s vote on fracking would be treated by the whips as a vote of confidence in the Government…
…And that, second, that Graham Stuart, the Minister responding to the debate, indicated that it wasn’t – without Morton having been told…
…Which led her and Whittaker to tell colleagues that they had quit their posts amidst chaos in the lobbies – presumably on the ground that neither can continue if the authority of the whips is undermined.
It has been reported that Liz Truss chased Morton through the lobbies to persuade her to stay on, thus missing the vote, and so initially being registered as having failed to support a confidence measure that she herself had called…
…That Whittaker came out of the lobbies and said “I am f*cking furious and I don’t give a f*ck anymore”, amidst claims of Therese Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg manhandling Conservative MPs (which he denies)…
…And that Truss was barracked by Tory MPs in the lobbies as confusion reigned about the status of the vote, in which 37 Tory MPs are registered as failing to support the Government.
Finally as I write, Downing Street is claiming that neither Morton nor Whittaker have resigned. Both have apparently been in a meeting with Truss in the aftermath of the vote.
I was a Conservative MP for the best part of ten years, and have been a political journalist for the better part of 20. But as the old song about the pushmepullyou has it, I’ve “never seen anything like it in my life”.