Normally, rebels in any political party can be identified fairly easily. They will have acquired a reputation for stepping out of line. As a result, most will not have risen far up the ladder. But the government’s recent behaviour on Brexit and coronavirus has turned people who are normally loyal, including John Major and two other former party leaders, into critics of Boris Johnson. This week some surprising names joined the Tory awkward squad… Theresa May (MP for Maidenhead) Boris Johnson’s predecessor as Conservative leader has observed a dignified, if at times strained, loyalty to him since stepping aside last summer. But having battled to secure a Brexit deal herself, she was furious at Johnson’s willingness to trample on an agreement he himself had signed. Evidently furious, she told the Commons on Tuesday: “This parliament voted that withdrawal agreement into UK legislation. The government is now changing that agreement. Given that, how can the government reassure future international partners that the UK can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations of the agreements it signs?” Michael Howard (Tory peer) Also a former party leader and home secretary, Howard is a lawyer and one of the most hardline of the Brexiters. But even he rebelled when he heard that the government was ready to break international law. Speaking in the House of Lords on Wednesday, Howard said he could not believe what he was hearing. He asked peers: “How can we reproach Russia or China or Iran when their conduct falls below internationally accepted standards when we are showing such scant regard for our treaty obligations?” Sir Charles Walker (MP for Broxbourne)
Walker is vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers and as such has the ear of the prime minister and whips. He counts himself as a Johnson loyalist but has attacked the government in recent weeks for its string of U-turns on coronavirus and exams – and then on Wednesday said he could not vote for anything that meant the UK was breaking international law. He is worried that Tory MPs will not be able to defend the government’s actions to their constituents. Sir Robert Neill (MP for Bromley and Chiselhurst)
A prominent Remainer, Neill, chairman of the all-party justice select committee, extracted the admission on Tuesday from Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, that the government was planning to break international law. On Friday, Neill tabled a rebel amendment to the internal market bill that will have its second reading on Monday. If passed, which is unlikely so early in its parliamentary life, it will scupper the Johnson plan and give parliament a veto. Norman Lamont (Tory peer and former chancellor) Like Howard, Lamont is a hardline Brexiter. Also like Howard, he does not back breaking the law. He too made his views very clear on Thursday. “I think the government are in a terrible mess and in a hole and I don’t think it is easy to justify,” he told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme. Tobias Ellwood (MP for Bournemouth East)
Ellwood is chairman of the defence select committee and a strong Remainer. In March 2017 during a terrorist attack at the House of Commons, the former army officer gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to PC Keith Palmer who later died of his injuries. On breaking international law he suggested that the government had lost its moral compass: “We are all trying to get a trade deal over the line, but in the process we risk losing sight of who we are and the values we uphold.” Tom Tugendhat (MP for Tonbridge and Malling)
Tugendhat chairs the powerful select committee on foreign affairs. He said that breaking international law would harm Britain’s economy, as well as the UK abroad. “Our entire economy is based on the perception that people have of the UK’s adherence to the rule of law. I hope it’s clear where I stand on that.” Sir Desmond Swayne (MP for New Forest West)
A parliamentary private secretary to David Cameron when he was Tory leader, Swayne has become fiercely critical of the way Covid-19 restrictions are imposed without debate in parliament. “What remedy is there for those of us who enthusiastically support the prime minister but nevertheless want to restrain the government’s ability to govern by order without debate?” he asked on Wednesday, adding that ministers should hang their heads in shame.