First shot fired in the Conservative rebellion against tax rises

Esther McVey became the first Tory MP to say she would vote against the government, writes John Rentoul

It was only as the session was drawing to a close that Esther McVey, the Tory backbencher, was called to ask a question (PA )

Nothing much seemed to happen at Prime Minister’s Question time. The exchanges between Angela Rayner and Dominic Raab, deputising for Rishi Sunak who is on an overnight flight back from Indonesia, were surprisingly flat. It was only later that a backbench Conservative let off a firecracker.

Journalists who had taken their seats in the press gallery in eager anticipation of fireworks from the Labour deputy leader against a deputy prime minister at bay were instantly deflated by Rayner’s first question. She said Britain “has an unshakeable commitment to Nato and our allies, including Poland”, and asked if Raab agreed that Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure showed “the utter contempt that Putin has for international order”.

It turned out that the deputy prime minister did agree with that. There was less agreement on Rayner’s next two questions, about tax havens and Britain’s place in the world growth league table, but the back-and-forth was formulaic. Raab said the rules on non-dom status were stricter under the Conservatives than they had been under Labour, while Rayner had a good line saying the UK is 38th out of 38 OECD countries for economic growth: “If there was a world cup for growth we wouldn’t even qualify.”