Blog: Tory big beasts lick their wounds as Brexit rebellion fizzles out – The Telegraph

A string of Tory big beasts spent most of Wednesday morning making it clear that they were opposing Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal.

The list of rebels was high-powered – Liz Truss, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel followed Boris Johnson in attacking the Windsor Framework. Soon, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Simon Clarke had added their names.

Overnight estimates from the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs had been that around 25 Tory MPs would rebel. One Tory leaving an ERG meeting put the number at 35.

In the event, just 22 Conservative MPs rebelled and another 48 abstained. The Government was delighted with the apparent scale of its win.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said: “We have voted to ensure that the people of Northern Ireland, through a restored Executive, will have full democratic input to the laws that apply to them.”

Mr Heaton-Harris had even joined Mr Sunak in the Aye lobby, personally thanking both Tory and Labour MPs for supporting the deal.