Wendy Morton is returning to the back benches almost a week after speculation she resigned in fury at the handling of a vote in the Commons, with the chaos leading to the fall of Liz Truss.
Ms Morton’s status as chief whip was in the balance amid talk that she had resigned over the fracking vote in the Commons last Wednesday, only for Downing Street to insist she remained in the post hours later.
At 9.49pm – more than two hours after the vote – No 10 issued a statement saying she and her deputy Craig Whittaker remained in post.
In an extraordinary further update at 1.33am, Downing Street said the Prime Minister had “full confidence” in both of them.
But Conservative Ruth Edwards said Ms Morton did in fact resign during Wednesday’s chaos in the Commons.
“I walked up to the Chief Whip to try and clarify what was going on. She cut me off mid-sentence ‘I don’t have to talk to you, I’ve resigned’,” Ms Edwards wrote on the ConservativeHome website.
It came after climate minister Graham Stuart told the Commons minutes before the vote that “quite clearly this is not a confidence vote”, despite Mr Whittaker earlier issuing a “100% hard” three-line whip, meaning any Tory MP who rebelled could be thrown out of the parliamentary party.
No 10 later said Mr Stuart had been “mistakenly” told by Downing Street to say the vote should not be treated as a confidence motion, and that Conservative MPs were “fully aware” it was subject to a three-line whip.
A spokesman said the whips would be speaking to the Tories who failed to support the Government, and those without a “reasonable excuse” would face “proportionate disciplinary action” – although that does not necessarily mean whey would have the whip removed.
The confusion led to ugly scenes at Westminster, with Cabinet ministers Therese Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg among a group of senior Tories accused of pressuring colleagues to go into the “no” lobby, with Labour former minister Chris Bryant saying some MPs were “physically manhandled into another lobby and being bullied”.
Then-Business Secretary Mr Rees-Mogg insisted he had seen no evidence of anyone being manhandled, but senior Tory MP Sir Charles Walker said what took place was “inexcusable” and “a pitiful reflection on the Conservative Parliamentary Party”.
The day after the mayhem in the Commons, Ms Truss said she had told the King she was resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.
On Tuesday, Ms Morton tweeted: “Heading to the back benches from where I will continue to represent the constituents, businesses and communities of Aldridge-Brownhills.”
