What caused ‘manhandling’ and ‘jabbing at people’ during Commons fracking vote?
It was one of those days “you think has been made up”, a former Conservative adviser told Sky News last night.
As MPs voted on a Labour motion to ban fracking, reports began to emerge of “bullying” and “manhandling” outside the no lobby.
Tory MPs “went to bed crying”, Labour MP Chris Bryant told Sky News on Thursday morning, adding that they had been “intimidated and bullied”.
Politics Hub: Latest developments from Downing Street
The business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said: “This is a government that is functioning well,” while admitting he could not claim to have “seen absolutely everything” outside the voting lobby.
“The fact is, our party’s in a total mess,” said Tory backbencher Danny Kruger. “Hundreds of colleagues are very worried.”
Conservative MPs had been instructed to vote against the motion.
The government argued it was committed to local consultations on fracking. That was despite the party’s 2019 manifesto committing to a “moratorium on fracking” unless the “science shows categorically it can be done safely”.
Thus it was understandable if Tory MPs were feeling confused.
Deputy Chief Whip Craig Whittaker had issued a “100% hard” three-line whip, meaning any Tory MP who rebelled could be thrown out of the parliamentary party, having shown, by their actions, that they did not have confidence in the government.
Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker told Sky News just before 6pm on Wednesday: “We’ve ended up with a confidence matter on the table. It’s extremely important that no one seeks to punish the government in these votes.”
But climate minister Graham Stuart told the Commons, minutes before the vote at 7pm, that “quite clearly this is not a confidence vote”.
Later, Number 10 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.
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Labour MP describes chaos in Westminster
Following the vote, which the government won comfortably with a majority of 90, rumours began to swirl around the Palace of Westminster suggesting that both the chief whip, Wendy Morton, and Mr Whittaker had resigned.
Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News there was an “element of confusion” and he was “not entirely clear on what the situation is with the chief whip”.
Things were finally cleared up in the early hours of the morning, when Downing Street said at 1.33am: “The prime minister has full confidence in the chief and deputy chief whip.
“Throughout the day, the whips had treated the vote as a confidence motion. The minister at the despatch box was told, mistakenly, by Downing Street to say that it was not.
“However, Conservative MPs were fully aware that the vote was subject to a three-line whip.
“The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the government.
“Those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the government can expect proportionate disciplinary action.”
Mr Bryant tweeted a photo taken outside the no lobby showing a collection of MPs gathered together.
Two Tory “waverers” were “surrounded” by “15-20 mostly Tory MPs”, he told Sky News.
Speaking after the vote, he said: “There was a group including several cabinet ministers who were basically shouting at them and at least one member was physically pulled through the door into the voting lobby.”
Interviewed again this morning, he added: “There was a lot of shouting, there was a lot of gesticulating, pointing at people, jabbing at people – ‘squaring up to people’ is how one other MP described it to me.
“I’ve been around a very long time in parliament and I’m not naive. Of course it’s perfectly legitimate for the whips to try and persuade their members by force of reason to vote with them, but it’s not on to intimidate and bully.”
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Manhandling of MPs ‘not acceptable’
Sources close to Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey later denied she had “manhandled” MPs.
“Absolutely she was encouraging Conservative MPs into the government lobby but she didn’t manhandle anyone,” those sources said.
Transport Secretary Anne Marie-Trevelyan said she was “shocked” by the reports from the Commons, adding that it is “never acceptable” for MPs to be “manhandled” into voting.
An investigation has been launched.
Mr Rees-Mogg said the most physical contact he had seen outside the voting lobby was a woman “affectionately patting” a man on the back.
But he said he arrived with two minutes to go and could not claim he had seen “absolutely everything”.
Regarding Mr Bryant, he said the Labour MP “sometimes ought to be more judicious about the language he bandies about”.
Mr Bryant countered by saying: “I haven’t seen any videos. I’ve only seen still photos, but Jacob Rees-Mogg is in all of them.
“There will be individual Tory MPs who went to bed crying. I know, because they’ve told me so.”
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Mr Kruger told Sky News: “I didn’t see any of that (alleged manhandling) and, very dismayed at those reports, I don’t really believe them.
“Obviously the atmosphere is febrile. Things are very bad for the government. No doubt there are harsh words being exchanged, but I’m afraid that is politics.”
He added that there was “certainly no manhandling” and those suggesting there was are “exaggerating, they’re twisting the knife”.
He went on: “But the fact is, our party’s in a total mess. The government is in a very bad way. We’re a divided party at the moment. Hundreds of colleagues are very worried.”
Another backbencher, David Simmonds, said: “Our colleague who allegedly was manhandled says that wasn’t the case.”
Claire Pearsall, a former Tory adviser and Tory councillor, said: “This afternoon has been one of those days that you just think has been made up.”
She was in Westminster on Tuesday and said “people are just sitting around thinking this is the end of days”.
Earlier in the day, Suella Braverman resigned as home secretary and was replaced by former transport secretary Grant Shapps.
Looking on the bright side, senior Tory backbencher Sir Roger Gale predicted that Prime Minister Liz Truss could emerge stronger following Ms Braverman’s departure.
“On balance, at the end of today I would say, in a peculiar way – and it is peculiar – Truss might come out of it stronger.
“I may be completely wrong and out of touch.”
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
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Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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