Rumour has it Amber Rudd is resigning....

[NataliaOsipova]

Seeing rumours that Amber Rudd is to resign from the Cabinet. Is this the start of the exodus? Can’t believe so many have stayed after this week if they have any concern for their own longer term political careers..

[Mummyoflittledragon]

I’ve just read some responses to the resignation on Twitter. Apparently Bozo is #ThePeoplesPrimeMinister. I’m much happier here in mumsnet world , where remainers are prevalent.

[bellainthemiddle]

@SymphonyofShadows couldn't agree more. She is a cruel woman, and those are not words I could use lightly.

[LaurieMarlow]

Can someone explain to me why this is such a big deal for Boris and may mean the beginning of the end for him?

It’s the fact that she’s also resigned the whip (and laid out her reasons why).

He’s got no majority and now the rats are deserting the ship.

[bellainthemiddle]

@LaurieMarlow Blood for breakfast, in other words ;)

[LaurieMarlow]

Blood for breakfast, in other words

[CrunchyCarrot]

Wow. I must say she never looked happy in the Johnson cabinet.

[WoollyMollyMonkey]

What’s a whip? I am clueless sorry!

[bellainthemiddle]

Taking the whip means you abide by the rules / policy of the party and vote the way they want you to in parliament.

Whips are members who have the role of enforcing party discipline (ie encouraging their party's members to vote in accordance with the party line, not to contradict party policy in the media, etc.). They often act as tellers in votes and they cannot speak in the chamber (or, usually, in the media).

A "one line whip" basically means, you really ought to be there and vote with the party. A "two line whip" meant "be there unless you've got a bloody good excuse". A "three line whip" means "be there or else", and if a member defies a three line there are usually serious consequences (ie, any minister would be expecting to resign or be sacked). In the written form, this is communicated as a list of votes taking place with something like "your attendance is absolutely necessary" written underneath, underlined once, twice or three times as appropriate.

Amber Rudd resigning the whip means that she will no longer sit as a Conservative and will therefore no longer be subject to party discipline in the chamber.

If a member breaks rules or displays "consistent indiscipline" (ie frequently not voting with their party) they can have the whip withdrawn, which means they are essentially suspended or expelled from their party.

[WoollyMollyMonkey]

Thanks for that Bella. All mps have the whip then? I thought it was just 2 or 3 maybe were ‘the whip’ and they went round making sure everyone voted as the leader wanted, but after all the expulsions it sounded like they were all whips and I didn’t think there would be that many of them!

[darkcloudsandsunnyskies]

Has anything like this happened before. What next.

[bellainthemiddle]

All MPs take "the whip" unless they are independents (or Jeremy Corbyn during the Blair government years ) but only a few of them are whips. A larger party will have several (chief whip, deputy chief whip, education whip, Scottish whip, etc.) whereas a smaller part (Lib Dems or SNP) will have only one or two.

[Oranginna]

I have some grudging respect for Amber Rudd's toughness, but she had a tiny majority in a Leave constituency. She is also tainted by the Windrush scandal. She would never have kept her seat in the upcoming election. A new Leave candidate is much more likely to hold the seat for the Tories.

[Quaffy]

Thank you for explaining. I dislike Boris and Brexit quite intensely so well done Amber. Her letter was amazing!

[lonelyplanetmum]

Rambling thoughts on numbers in the battle for the soul of the blue rosette ....I just looked up ( only on wiki) numbers of Tory MPs. At the end of the election it was 330 now it's 289.

So 41 have gone at various stages after the TIggers and now the latest expulsions and resignations.

Throughout Cameron and May's time there's been this desperation not to split and keep the ERG in the fold. On the numbers the result is not far off what it would have been if Cameron or May had stood up to the ERG iyswim.

There were ever only 50? ERG members. So they've been appeased and retained at the price of losing 41?

All of this never ending dystopian clusterfuck emanates from Cameron calling a referendum to appease the ERG. There was an unhealable schism and it's still there.

But why have the 50 been winning over time? Why have they gained the 'prize' of the Conservative banner Why weren't the 41+ supported more by the non ERG conservatives. Does it all really come down to fear of Farage who time and time again is unproven electorally- his great March flopped spectacularly etc. It's fear that has seemed to shift the rest of Tory party to a Faragist position.

Not sure where I'm going with this but the 50 have been disproportionately powerful. Appeasing them over the years has facilitated the coup advancement. Why? The ERG should be the ones filtering off to be independents now. The 240 MPs in the middle I guess should have acted more cohesively. There should have been another taxpayer funded internal faction. It could have been organised into the ONC ( one nation Conservative) faction with I don't know Ruth D, Ken C, Amber Rudd Chuka Umunna , Nick Boles et al.

I think it's also down to organisation and petty differences whereas the ERG have a long term cohesive group so have been able to act boldly as they feel they belong to a supportive tribe.

I never thought I'd spend this long thinking about the Conservative party.

[Oranginna]

It's because the Tory membership support Brexit.

[Oranginna]

The Labour membership support Corbyn.
The Tory membship support Brexit.

If you want to influence politics you need to join a political party .

[lonelyplanetmum]

It's because the Tory membership support Brexit

But not a no deal disaster capitalist ERG one?

Good cornments from Ken C here...

"Clarke was attracted to the Tory party as a 20-year-old by Macmillan’s pro-European, one-nation leadership. Were he that age now, he would make a different decision. “In its present state, I would not join the Conservative party. I would not follow Boris Johnson in this wild, rightwing nationalist stuff. The party wasn’t like that when I joined.”
Other Tories of his persuasion have switched to the Lib Dems. Could he? At the age of 79, “it would be rather silly, wouldn’t it? I am so obviously a Conservative. All my friends would laugh.” He might, though, very well vote for the Lib Dems.
“I haven’t made my mind up which way I’m going to vote. It depends where Boris has taken us by then. If I was going to cast a protest vote, I would follow the Conservative tradition of voting Lib Dem.”
Even if that risked putting Jeremy Corbyn into No 10? Which will be the more terrifying prospect: Corbyn as prime minister or Johnson put back in Downing Street on a no-deal manifesto?
“Both are awful prospects, but I think a no-deal Brexit could cause far more damage to our future economic success than Corbyn.”
It is another sign of strange times that Ken Clarke, who never gave any quarter in many decades of battling Labour, can think that his own party could inflict a worst fate on Britain than a Corbyn government."

Ken~Clarke~guardian

[lonelyplanetmum]

Sorry posted on wrong thread.

[NiteFlights]

lonelyplanetmum I couldn’t agree more with your post about the ERG. It was such a foolhardy move to hold a referendum. If Remain had won, did Cameron think the Eurosceptics would all go away, along with Farage and co, never to be heard from again?

The price the Tories are paying for pandering to the ERG is getting awfully high. Unfortunately the rest of us pay too.

[MockersthefeMANist]

Whips:

Short for 'Whippers in," a term from the hunting field, which says a lot about parliament. Tory whips are traditionally ex-army officers, Labour tend to be old trade union strongarms. In both cases, they can have a fearsome reputation for reducing wayward lobby fodder to tears.

The superb play, "This House" tells the tale of the dying days of the Labour govt n 1979, featuring the terrifying Labour Chief Whip, Yorkshireman Walter Harrison, his cockney barra boy deputy Bob Mellish, and young junior whip Ann Taylor, first ever female in the whips office who would in 1997 become chief whip herself. Against them, the urbane gentlemanly and deceptively nice Bernard 'Jack' Weatherall for the Tories, who would later become speaker.

[AlexaShutUp]

I really hope that Nicky Morgan now finds that her position is untenable.

[zizu73]

Removing all the Tory MPs who don't sign up to No Deal Brexit was always the strategy designed by Cummings. I think he wants to have a united Tory party behind BJ heading into the GE. What they really are after are the Brexit Party votes so her resignation will not hurt them with the target group. It might hurt him with moderate MPs and voters, in particular the wording of her letter, but they are prepared to take that risk. BJ&Cummings must have calculated that getting the BP votes will be enough to outweigh the loss of moderate Tory voters in a GE. That and the believe that Corbyn is unelectable as PM in the eyes of the majority of the British electorate. Today's poll showing that the Tories have increased their lead over Labour to 10% by taking the BP vote seems to supports that their strategy is working but we have long way to go and BJ has had a rocky start. His brother's resignation will hurt him politically. The opposition to No Deal needs to unite, collaborate and toughen up if they want to have any chance of stopping No Deal/BJ.

[BubblesBuddy]

John Bercow has, effectively been deselected as the Conservatives will put up a candidate against him at the next election. He is a Conservative but being effectively removed because he stood up for Parliament again the Government’s wishes. Another vindictive move and they are desperate for seats. I hope electors will vote for Bercow if he continues. He’s a good constituency MP. If you do the right thing, you are effectively expelled.

The ERG also gained prominence due to UKIP and their gain in popularity. They persuaded Cameron that he needed UKIP “hearts and minds” and therefore needed to offer a referendum.

[Ohflippineck]

Think PPs have already mentioned the spectre of McVey.
I’m also worried that Ian Duncan Smith will be brought back in. That self-important proselytiser would be the final straw. Demonstrates the state of our politics when intellectual lightweights like him are described as “big beasts”. Clarke, yes, Hammond, possibly. Ian Duncan-Smith? Good grief, no. Thick as mince.

[LenoVintura]

Javid just had a proper kicking on Marr. Not capable of the mental gymnastics required to stay on message.