Steerpike

While several members of the ERG announced that they were voting against Theresa May in the Conservative leadership vote of no confidence last year, those on the Remain side of the Tory Party have generally been much more supportive of the PM, especially when it comes to public displays of loyalty. Chief Remainer Anna Soubry for one has routinely given interviews in support of May and sent this message on social media ahead of her confidence vote last year: 'We don’t need to change PM but the PM must change course. Get the vote back next week. And when it’s lost take this matter back to the people. It’s the only way out of #BrexitChaos & only way PM stays.' But could this loyalty be on the wane?

Backbench MP and arch-Remainer Dominic Grieve shocked political observers this weekend, when it was revealed that he is planning to take control of the parliamentary timetable to allow a coalition of 300 MPs (less than a majority) to introduce legislation to block a no-deal Brexit. If he succeeds, the former Attorney General will overturn centuries of precedent and completely upend Britain's unwritten constitution which says that whoever wins an election, gets control over introducing legislation in the Commons. Speaking on Radio 4, Grieve defended his plot by saying that his controversial amendment still required a majority to pass into law: 'No business of the House can be decided without a majority.

Jeremy Corbyn is under mounting pressure to back a second referendum. Labour MPs have grouped together to try and persuade their leader to side with the People's Vote campaign in order to break the Brexit deadlock. But so far, Corbyn doesn't seem keen on the idea, preferring instead to sit on the fence. The same isn't quite true of his brother, Piers, who in the early hours of this morning took to Twitter to make his views on a second referendum perfectly clear: Mr S thinks the People's Vote brigade will be hoping that Jeremy doesn't turn to Piers for advice on what to do next...

You would think that after being Labour leader for three years, some of the shine would have worn off Jeremy Corbyn. But among the devoted, 'JC' is still an object of veneration who can do wrong, which means of course that any criticism of him is considered blasphemy. The Corbyn cult were in strong form today, when the Labour leader gave a speech in Hastings to set out his Brexit policy. While the crowd were initially quiet, at the first sign of a journalist asking Corbyn a difficult question (about why he would not talk with the Prime Minister about Brexit) they immediately sprang into action, booing the journalist and shouting 'rubbish' at him. They eventually had to be calmed down by the chairwoman. Kinder, gentler politics once again from Labour members.

Michael Gove ended the no confidence debate in the Commons by denouncing Jeremy Corbyn. But perhaps unsurprisingly his criticism of the Labour leader did not go down well with those on the opposite benches. His comments about Corbyn were shouted down by Labour MPs, who yelled 'shame on you'. Here's what Gove said to rile them up: 'If the leader of the opposition won't stand up against Putin when he attacks people in this country...if he will not stand up for this country when the critical national security questions are being asked, how can we possibly expect him to stand up for us in European negotiations?' Mr S thinks Gove might have a point...

After suffering what could be the largest Commons defeat in over a hundred years - far surpassing anyone's expectations, it's fair to say that Theresa May will not be happy with the way things went this evening. So she might take comfort in the fact that her deal did at least have one positive outcome: providing a small boost to the economy -  though probably not in the way she intended. In response to her Brexit deal being voted down by a massive margin, the pound briefly fell, and then rebounded sharply against the Euro and the Dollar, a clear sign that the uncertainty of the Brexit process was still preferable to her bad deal: Mr S expects we won't hear champagne corks popping in Number 10 at the news just yet...

It's no secret in Westminster that Philip Hammond’s idea of the best Brexit possible is one that keeps Britain close to the EU. The Chancellor spent the last year issuing dire prophecies about the impact of a hard Brexit and his Treasury forecasts have become infamous for spelling out the doom and gloom of no deal. But are Hammond’s Project Fear warnings catching on? Mr Steerpike can reveal, after the Treasury released documents under the Freedom of Information Act, that Hammond met with several business bigwigs last year, only for them to issue similarly dire Brexit assessments shortly afterwards.

At the end of last year Labour MP Fiona Onasanya was convicted of perverting the course of justice, after lying to police about a speeding charge. She has since been suspended from the Labour party but will remain the MP for Peterborough unless she is recalled or sentenced to longer than one year in jail. In response to the verdict, Onasanya had what we might call an unusual reaction. In messages to colleagues the MP compared her plight to that of Jesus and Moses and in a newspaper column, vowed to carry on fighting as an independent MP, promising to fight this 'botched Brexit deal': 'This is why I have continued to scrutinise this botched Brexit deal: a deal that does not take back control, nor provide industry, business, and left behind communities with confidence.

John Bercow ditched Parliamentary precedent when he allowed a vote to take place on Dominic Grieve's Brexit amendment yesterday. His decision caused uproar among Tory MPs, but Bercow defended the decision by saying that precedent didn't count for everything when it comes to setting the rules in the Commons. He told MPs: ‘I am not in the business of invoking precedent, nor am I under any obligation to do so. I think the hon. Gentleman will know that it is the long-established practice of this House that the Speaker in the Chair makes judgments upon the selection of amendments and that those judgments are not questioned by Members of the House. I am clear in my mind that I have taken the right course of action.