COALITION OF THE DISGRUNTLED
Tory rebels toasted their shock victory with white wine and champagne
LAST night, 11 rebel Tories toasted their victory with champagne and white wine after helping to defeat the Government in a vote which Leavers fear is part of a plot to thwart Brexit. Executive Political Editor JACK DOYLE profiles those who joined forces with Labour, including five who defied their Leave-voting constituents: DOMINIC GRIEVE QC The rebels’ ringleader. Grieve is an ardent Remainer and lawyer’s lawyer who received the Legion d’honneur – France’s highest honour – in 2016. has tabled a string of amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill but claims he doesn’t want to block Brexit and is only trying to defend the role of Parliament. But colleagues whisper that he has never got over being sacked as Attorney General by David Cameron. Not renowned for his modesty, he likened himself to Churchill in his speech yesterday. Constituency: Beaconsfield How it voted: 49 per cent Leave
ANNA SOUBRY
AN unrepentant and frothing Remainer. has backed a raft of amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill, many of which will frustrate the process of Brexit. Wants Britain to stay in the single market. A minister under David Cameron, she was sacked by Theresa May in July last year. The 60-year-old refused to take a junior Ministry of Justice job under elizabeth Truss, telling friends it was an ‘insult’ given her experience. Constituency: Broxtowe How it voted: 52.5 per cent Leave
KEN CLARKE
ARDENT europhile. The former Tory Party leader, Chancellor and home Secretary who has never hidden his enthusiasm for everything european. Was the sole Tory MP to vote against triggering Article 50. Accused of trying to undermine Brexit by joining Nick Clegg and Lord Adonis to travel to Brussels for a meeting with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Constituency: Rushcliffe How it voted: 41.4 per cent Leave
NICKY MORGAN
DISGRUNTLED former minister. Private school and Oxford-educated, she was dubbed ‘Ms U-turn’ during her time as education Secretary after repeatedly changing her mind. Called for a woman to be Tory leader after David Cameron, then backed a male candidate against Mrs May. Joined the awkward squad after she was sacked by the PM who she then criticised for wearing an expensive pair of leather trousers. it later emerged she owned a £950 Mulberry handbag. Fellow Tory MP Nadine Dorries called her one of ‘the ragged band of nutcase europhiles’. Constituency:Loughborough How it voted: 50 per cent Leave
ANTOINETTE SANDBACH
A FORMER member of the Welsh Assembly, barrister Sandbach, 48, has backed a string of rebel amendments. elected in 2015, she was barely known until she broke down in tears in the Commons when she movingly revealed how she had lost her son Sam to sudden infant death syndrome. When accused by eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash of ‘collaborating’ with Labour over Brexit, she claimed the comments were ‘personally offensive to someone whose family was thrown out of their house by Nazis and lived under Nazi occupation’. Constituency:eddisbury How it voted: 52.2 per cent Leave
STEPHEN HAMMOND
ANOTHER disgruntled former minister, who was sacked from his Department for Transport job by David Cameron in 2014. As a minister he was found to have used chauffeur-driven government cars 138 times a year despite living six miles from Westminster. in 2013, he called for MPs to get a £40,000 pay rise to more than £100,000 to bring them in line with GPs. Represents the heavily Remain constituency of Wimbledon. Was sacked as a vice-chairman of the party after last night’s vote. Constituency: Wimbledon How it voted: 27.3 per cent Leave
HEIDI ALLEN
IS she actually a Tory, her colleagues ask? The 42-year-old Remainer used her maiden speech to attack George Osborne on tax credits, and has rebelled – or threatened to – so many times the whips have given up on her and no longer even bother to lobby her. Said this summer she would leave the Conservative Party if Jacob Rees-Mogg became leader. Voted for Article 50 but said it didn’t mean she was ‘reconciled to the result’. Constituency: South Cambridgeshire How it voted: 38.4 per cent Leave
BOB NEILL
The 65-year-old former leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly was sacked by David Cameron after two years as a local government minister. Now chairman of the justice committee, he argues Brexit was an ‘error’ but claims to respect the result of the referendum. Accused by Brexiteer and fellow MP Nadine Dorries of being an anti-Theresa May plotter, he replied: ‘She’s in fantasy land. She should go and lie down in a darkened room and engage brain before mouth.’
Constituency: Bromley and Chislehurst How it voted: 49.6 per cent Leave
SARAH WOLLASTON
DR Wollaston, 55, initially backed Leave, but abruptly switched sides over the claim Brexit could mean an extra £350 million a week for the NHS. Many Tory MPs claimed the change of opinion was ‘deliberately staged and political’. The former GP is a serial rebel and chairman of the Commons health select committee. She said at the time: ‘The consensus now is there would be a huge economic shock if we voted to leave.’ Constituency: Totnes How it voted: 54.1 per cent Leave
JONATHAN DJANOGLY
ELECTED in 2001, multi-millionaire solicitor Djanogly was caught up in the 2009 expenses scandal and voluntarily repaid £25,000. Made a justice minister by David Cameron, he came under pressure to resign after it emerged he hired a firm of private investigators to spy on local party members and trick them into revealing what they thought of him. Left the Government in 2012 and hasn’t had a ministerial job since. he rejects the charge of being a mutineer, insisting he is a ‘scrutineer’. Constituency: huntingdon How it voted: 53.4 per cent Leave
SIR OLIVER HEALD
A VETERAN of John Major’s government, he led a Tory rebellion on plans to reform the house of Lords in 2012. But despite making loud noises, he never actually voted against the measure. A barrister, he was rewarded by being made Solicitor General in 2012 but sacked after two years and given a knighthood as a sop. Brought back into the Government last summer as junior justice minister but sacked after the election. Revealing his bitterness he tweeted: ‘enjoyed my time as a justice minister... have been asked to make way for a younger person.’
Constituency: North east hertfordshire How it voted: 51.4 per cent Leave Referendum vote estimates calculated by Chris Hanretty, Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway