More than a few disgruntled backbenchers: Tory rebels can make life very difficult for Boris Johnson

Editorial: All hostile MPs will be emboldened by the prime minister’s apparent refusal to learn any lessons from the experience of the confidence vote

(Dave Brown)

Perhaps taking their cue from the defiant militancy of the RMT union, Conservative backbenchers hostile to the prime minister are threatening a “vote strike” to disrupt the legislative programme.

Given that there are 148 such MPs, even a fraction of them would be sufficient to destabilise the government. Indeed, if all of them acted as a solid bloc – which of course they are not – they would be easily the third largest grouping in the House of Commons.

There may be both more and less to this than meets the eye. Less, because the disparate group of critics will not be whipped and organised in the disciplined manner that, say, the European Research Group were during the Brexit saga. Instead, there will be different knots of colleagues who share motives and outlook, and some individuals who will follow their own conscience.