Dan Wootton: I salute the brave Tory rebels

While the pathetic Leader of No Opposition Keir Starmer made their vote against the government meaningless in terms of stopping the anti-freedom, anti-evidence-based Plan B measures – including dreaded vaccine passports and mask mandates – their united voice has shaken Downing Street to its core tonight.

Two years on from a landslide election, many of the MPs who backed Boris Johnson’s brilliant Brexit strategy have rightly turned on him over his calamitous, hysterical Covid-19 policies.

But the 99 Conservatives who put their morality, values system and common sense ahead of personal ambition have made a difference. Both the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary made two significant concessions to the freedom fighters in a bid to avoid an even bigger rebellion.

Crucially, Boris Johnson has pledged he will end plans for his awful “national conversation” on mandatory vaccination, which would have torn both his party and the entire country apart.

And awful vaccine passports will always come with the option of providing a negative lateral flow test.

But rightly the Tory rebels were prepared to become the country’s only opposition tonight because of a complete lack of evidence for the measures being introduced as well as a failure of learning to live with Covid, as the government has long promised.

The 96 Conservative MPs listed as voting against the Covid pass regulations were: Adam Afriyie (Windsor), Lee Anderson (Ashfield), Shaun Bailey (West Bromwich West), Siobhan Baillie (Stroud), Steve Baker (Wycombe), Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire), John Baron (Basildon and Billericay), Scott Benton (Blackpool South), Bob Blackman (Harrow East), Peter Bone (Wellingborough), Ben Bradley (Mansfield), Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands), Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West), Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire), Steve Brine (Winchester), Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge), Christopher Chope (Christchurch), Brendan Clarke-Smith (Bassetlaw), Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds), Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford), Philip Davies (Shipley), David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden), Dehenna Davison (Bishop Auckland), Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon), Richard Drax (South Dorset), Iain Duncan Smith (Chingford and Woodford Green), Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East), Luke Evans (Bosworth), Liam Fox (North Somerset), Louie French (Old Bexley and Sidcup), Richard Fuller (North East Bedfordshire), Marcus Fysh (Yeovil), Nusrat Ghani (Wealden), Jo Gideon (Stoke-on-Trent Central), Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell), Chris Green (Bolton West), Damian Green (Ashford), James Grundy (Leigh), Robert Halfon (Harlow), Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon), Mark Harper (Forest of Dean), John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings), Adam Holloway (Gravesham), Tom Hunt (Ipswich), Mark Jenkinson (Workington), David Jones (Clwyd West), Simon Jupp (East Devon), Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton), Julian Knight (Solihull), Greg Knight (East Yorkshire), Robert Largan (High Peak), Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire), Edward Leigh (Gainsborough), Andrew Lewer (Northampton South), Julian Lewis (New Forest East), Chris Loder (West Dorset), Mark Logan (Bolton North East), Jonathan Lord (Woking), Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham), Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet), Anthony Mangnall (Totnes), Karl McCartney (Lincoln), Stephen McPartland (Stevenage), Esther McVey (Tatton), Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock), Damien Moore (Southport), Robbie Moore (Keighley), Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot), Holly Mumby-Croft (Scunthorpe), Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst), Matthew Offord (Hendon), Mark Pawsey (Rugby), Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead), John Penrose (Weston-super-Mare), Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole), Tom Randall (Gedling), John Redwood (Wokingham), Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury), Andrew Rosindell (Romford), Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield), Greg Smith (Buckingham), Henry Smith (Crawley), Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge), Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East), John Stevenson (Carlisle), Julian Sturdy (York Outer), Robert Syms (Poole), Derek Thomas (St Ives), Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire), Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling), Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet), Christian Wakeford (Bury South), Charles Walker (Broxbourne), David Warburton (Somerton and Frome), Giles Watling (Clacton), and William Wragg (Hazel Grove).

In Westminster plans are already being drawn up for new restrictions on the hospitality industry that could see limits in pubs and restaurants – or even their closure – and the return of the furlough scheme to further bankrupt the country.

And the Health Secretary says there are “no guarantees” schools will stay open. All this despite Doctor Angelique Coetzee, the South African GP who first blew the lid on Omicron, insisting the UK’s response “verges on hysteria”.

Boris talks tough in private about refusing to lock down ever again, but his actions make that hard to believe, especially given the pressure he constantly comes under from Whitty, Vallance, Ferguson and SAGE.

The Tory rebels who voted against Plan B today are now the country’s official opposition.

We need them.