How can Jeremy Hunt get away with imposing the junior doctors' contract? Look no further than Jeremy Corbyn

The normal restraints of Parliamentary democracy no longer apply – the Government has a freedom to take unpopular decisions with little threat of electoral payback

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It is easy to forget now but in the days after last year’s General Election all the talk was about how hard it would be for a Conservative only Government to govern with a working majority of just 17.

Controversial legislation would have to be shelved. Controversial decisions put off – with the Tories facing a daily struggle to exert their will on the Commons.

But eight months on this Conservative administration is largely governing as if it had a majority well over a hundred – a confidence on show earlier today when Jeremy Hunt stood up in the chamber to announce that he intended to impose a new contract on thousands of junior doctors.

If there was a more united and effective opposition Mr Hunt and his ultimate boss the Prime Minister might not have felt confident of taking this drastic step.

By and large junior doctors have public sympathy on their side – with polls showing over 60 per cent of voters blame the Government for the dispute.

The Conservatives are electorally vulnerable on the NHS and before the election everything David Cameron did and said was designed to send the message that the Health Service was safe in Tory hands.

But while Labour has howled in anger – and even joined the picket line – the truth is that they are an ineffectual opposition. And that is because they are not an effectual electoral threat.

No-one in Westminster, not least Labour MPs themselves, believe that Jeremy Corbyn can enter Downing Street in 2020. And the polls – although wrong in 2015 – emphatically back this up.

So the normal restraints of Parliamentary democracy no longer apply. The Government has a freedom to take unpopular decisions with little threat of electoral payback.

Added to this is the fact that health is a devolved issue – so the Scottish National Party has little interest in forcing the Government to back down. Actually the image of harsh Tories in England is one they are only too happy to cultivate ahead Scottish Elections in May.

So, whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute, a new contract will be imposed on the doctors. And future unpopular and controversial decisions will be easier to take.

Government is better for a strong opposition. But sadly the most effective opposition these days – remember tax credits – comes from Tory backbenchers themselves and that’s not a good place to be.