Three Tiers will come into force in England tomorrow after MPs voted in favour of the post-lockdown restrictions by 291 votes to 78. But the number of rebels means there is little chance of passing future measures if the opposition decides to vote against them.

All afternoon it looked as if Downing St. was trying to play up the rebellion whilst the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown sceptic MPs were trying to play down their numbers: both in an attempt to manage expectations. In the end the rebels won the battle, 56 Conservative MPs voted against, and 17 abstained, far exceeding the threshold needed to defeat the Government’s actual majority, and a step change from the previous revolt in the low 40s.

Coming in at 54 whipped Tory MPs, it also constitutes precisely the 15% of the parliamentary party needed to trigger the threshold required to move a non-confidence vote. An abstract thought now, but not one the whips will have missed either.

However, the motion was passed after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ordered his MPs to abstain. Even so, 15 of his MPs broke ranks and voted against the new restrictions.

Jeremy Corbyn, formerly a Labour MP and Julian Lewis, formerly a Conservative MP, both voted against. All 8 DUP MPs also voted against the measures.

In a statement the Chairman of the Covid Recovery Group Mark Harper said:

“We very much regret that in a moment of national crisis so many of us felt forced to vote against the measures that the government was proposing.

“The House of Commons has spoken and we hope that the Government will take on board the comments we have been making on the need for better data and modelling, regional cost-benefit analysis and on trusting MPs with the information they need to make such important decisions on behalf of their constituents.

“We must find a way to break the transmission of the disease, recapture the public’s support and confidence, end this devastating cycle of repeated restrictions and start living in a sustainable way until an effective and safe vaccine is successfully rolled out across the population.”

The Tories who voted against the motion:

1. Adam Afriyie
2. Imran Ahmad Khan
3. Graham Brady
4. Andrew Bridgen
5. Paul Bristow
6. Christopher Chope
7. Greg Clark
8. James Daly
9. Philip Davies
10. David Davis
11. Jonathan Djanogly
12. Jackie Doyle-Price
13. Richard Drax
14. Iain Duncan Smith
15. Mark Francois
16. Marcus Fysh
17. Cheryl Gillan
18. Chris Green
19. Damian Green
20. Kate Griffiths
21. Mark Harper
22. Philip Hollobone
23. David Jones
24. Julian Knight
25. Robert Largan
26. Pauline Latham
27. Chris Loder
28. Tim Loughton
29. Craig Mackinlay
30. Anthony Mangnall
31. Karl McCartney
32. Stephen McPartland
33. Esther McVey
34. Huw Merriman
35. Robbie Moore
36. Anne Marie Morris
37. Robert Neill
38. Mark Pawsey
39. John Redwood
40. Mary Robinson
41. Andrew Rosindell
42. Henry Smith
43. Ben Spencer
44. Desmond Swayne
45. Craig Tracey
46. Tom Tugendhat
47. Matt Vickers
48. Christian Wakeford
49. Charles Walker
50. David Warburton
51. William Wragg
52. Jeremy Wright

(Tellers for the Noes were Steve Baker and Robert Syms)

The 17 Tories who abstained:

Conservative

1. David Amess
2. Andrew Bowie
3. Karen Bradley
4. Steve Brine
5. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
6. David Duguid
7. Tobias Ellwood
8. Nusrat Ghani
9. Alister Jack
10. John Lamont
11. Andrea Leadsom
12. Theresa May
13. Paul Maynard
14. Andrew Mitchell
15. David Mundell
16. Douglas Ross
17. Jamie Wallis

The Labour MPs who defied their whip and voted against the restrictions:

1. Apsana Begum
2. Richard Burgon
3. Mary Kelly Foy
4. Andrew Gwynne
5. Mike Hill
6. Kevan Jones
7. Emma Lewell-Buck
8. Ian Mearns
9. Grahame Morris
10. Kate Osborne
11. Bell Ribeiro-Addy
12. John Spellar
13. Graham Stringer
14. Zarah Sultana
15. Derek Twig