Cowley's thunderbolt

Just as Tories were becoming accustomed to a Ken Clarke come back University of Nottingham Professor Philip Cowley throws a spanner in the works.

An essay by the Nottingham academic, published on ConservativeHome, highlights Clarke as the most rebellious Tory MP.

He notes that the member for Rushcliffe's rating may be inflated by repeated rebellions during voting on the Lisbon Treaty – a harbinger of things to come.

Another interesting point is that if the Tories win with a majority at the next election then almost half of parliamentary party will be rookie MPs.

Rebellion

A single parliamentary session under Gordon Brown saw more rebellions than an entire Parliament under Tony Blair.

That was one of the findings of University of Nottingham Academic Philip Cowley in a study about Labour dissension that he co-authored.

Brown’s first complete parliamentary session as PM, Nov 6 2007 to Nov 27 2008, saw Labour MPs defy whips 103 times.

Under Blair’s first Parliament, between 1997 and 2001, Labour MPs voted against their whips 96 times.

To put it in context the ‘103’ figure is a greater number of rebellions in one session than under any Government in 30 years.

See Cowley’s full report here.