The tribes behind the Tory rebellion on Covid passports
Different factions of the party united last night to send message to Boris Johnson
Almost 100 Tory MPs have joined forces in the biggest parliamentary rebellion yet against Boris Johnson by refusing to back his plans for domestic Covid passports.
“Paradoxically, he won the vote by a huge majority,” said John Rentoul at The Independent. But the prime minister only claimed his hollow victory last night because Labour supported him.
A total of 99 Conservatives voted against the proposal to require people to prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested negative before entering nightclubs and large events in England. The regulation is among Johnson’s Plan B measures to tackle the spread of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In a series of Commons votes, MPs also approved the extension of compulsory face masks in public indoor venues in England; the relaxation of isolation rules for people who are a contact of an Omicron case; and compulsory Covid vaccinations for front-line NHS staff.
“What will worry Downing Street is that the vote brought different wings of the Conservative Party together in opposition to the government’s plans,” said BBC political correspondent Nick Eardley.
The “anti-Johnson feeling” in the Tory backbenches is in part down to his “botched handling” of sleaze scandals and lockdown Christmas parties in Downing Street, wrote Rowena Mason in The Guardian. But an “equally sizeable reason” for discontent with No. 10 is “right-wing, libertarian MPs unhappy with the ideological basis for Covid restrictions”.
Mason suggested that fed-up MPs are rallying under the leadership of Mark Harper and Steve Baker, and the duo’s Covid Recovery Group, which has become “something of a successor to the European Research Group”.
Quentin Letts at The Times described Baker and his followers as “lion-clothed Zulus”, who despair that the PM has veered left. “As sceptical of Covid restrictions as they were of the European Union, these Brexity warriors are naked spear carriers for small-state Toryism.”
But the Tories behind this week’s rebellion extend beyond just the usual suspects. Other tribes included the “Blue Wallers” from former Labour seats in the North, as well as the “Other 2019ers”, according to Letts, who wrote that “rebellion has spread through the Tory 2019 intake faster than Omicron through a submarine”. Even Louie French, who won the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election less than a fortnight ago, voted no.
The insurgents also included the “Men in Suits”, comprising Tory grandees such as Graham Brady and Iain Duncan Smith, and the “This is Personal” group “of Tory grumblers who used to be ministers and now no longer are”, Letts added.
Yes, the rebels came from “every intake” and from “across the party’s traditions”, agreed Stephen Bush in The New Statesman. But while the scale of the revolt will do nothing to quell speculation that Johnson’s leadership “has entered its final act”, it also showed that opposition to further non-pharmaceutical measures within the party is now “mainstream”.
So Johnson “or any alternative PM” would “struggle to impose another lockdown and remain in their job”, Bush concluded.
That verdict may be a relief to The Telegraph’s Allison Pearson, who dismissed the “rebel” labels altogether.
“In my book, those upstanding men and women are the true Conservatives,” she said. “Rather, it is those who pushed through this repellently un-British measure, with the help of the Labour Party, who are the traitors to our philosophy.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Is Cop29 a 'waste of time'?
Today's Big Question World leaders stay away as spectre of Donald Trump haunts flagship UN climate summit
By The Week UK Published
-
The rise of the celebrity chef tour
The Week Recommends Chefs and food writers are hosting sell-out live events around the world
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
'Thank you for your service'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
What is the next Tory leader up against?
Today's Big Question Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unify warring factions and win back disillusioned voters – without alienating the centre ground
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is Lammy hoping to achieve in China?
Today's Big Question Foreign secretary heads to Beijing as Labour seeks cooperation on global challenges and courts opportunities for trade and investment
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Bob Woodward's War: the explosive Trump revelations
In the spotlight Nobody can beat Watergate veteran at 'getting the story of the White House from the inside'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Trump kept up with Putin, sent Covid tests, book says
Speed Read The revelation comes courtesy of a new book by Bob Woodward
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Who will replace Rishi Sunak as the next Tory leader?
In Depth Shortlist will be whittled down to two later today
By The Week UK Last updated
-
'The federal government's response to the latest surge has been tepid at best'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Is Britain about to 'boil over'?
Today's Big Question A message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence in the UK today
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
UK's Starmer slams 'far-right thuggery' at riots
Speed Read The anti-immigrant violence was spurred by false rumors that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an immigrant
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published