Liz Truss given glimmer of hope as MPs back fracking in ‘confidence vote’
Tory MPs gave Liz Truss a glimmer of hope as they voted against a Labour motion on fracking on a tumultuous day for the Prime Minister.
MPs were ordered to oppose the Labour move to ban fracking to show their loyalty to Liz Truss, or face expulsion from the parliamentary party.
The government has told Tory MPs it sees the vote as a confidence motion.
Labour tried to use a vote in the Commons this evening to force the introduction of a draft law banning the extraction of shale gas.
Labour’s motion was defeated by 230 votes to 326, with a majority 96.
A number of Conservative MPs oppose fracking, but were told they must oppose the Labour motion or face being expelled from the Conservative party in the House of Commons.
Ruth Edwards, the Conservative MP for Rushcliffe did not say she would vote against the Government, saying: ‘I don’t support fracking, but I am even less keen on the idea of letting the Labour Party play at being in government for the day.’
But she told MPs: ‘My final observation tonight is for our own front bench. For they have enabled the opposition to force colleagues to choose between voting against our manifesto and voting to lose the whip.
‘They should take a look at the faces of colleagues behind them, colleagues who have fracking sites in their constituencies, and they should hang their heads in shame.
‘A Conservative government will always have my confidence, but its leadership today has severely tested my trust and the trust of many colleagues and I would advise them not to do so again.’
Conservative Simon Hoare, from North Dorset, said ‘my opposition to fracking is well known’, adding: ‘It’s not going to happen, these are bald men fighting over a comb, it’s not going to occur.
‘No local community is going to grant consent.’
He said: ‘Watch on playback if you didn’t see it on Sunday the concluding episode of Frozen Planet II. Only an idiot would think that our planet could sustain new forms and new exploitations of fossil fuels into our environment’
He said there ‘should be a free vote’ adding: ‘I would love to vote against fracking tonight, but…I want to keep my voice and my vote to help shape the future of the party I’ve been a member of since 1985 and I’m not prepared to throw that away on an issue which is actually not, as I say, going to happen.’
He said: ‘We have, dare I say it, quite enough chaos at the moment without adding to it.’
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