It is indicative of how much turmoil the Labour Party has been over the last year and how the authority of the Prime Minister has been undermined by the resulting uncertainty that there have been so many Parliamentary revolts against the Government.
Today's Times reports that Gordon Brown suffered more backbench rebellions in his first full year as Prime Minister than Tony Blair in his first four-year Parliament. The total of 103 revolts during the 2007-08 parliamentary session was the most inflicted on any governing party for more than 30 years. It was higher than any other session during the Blair era, higher even than the 93 revolts suffered by John Major in 1992-93 when the Maastricht Bill tore the Conservative Party apart, and even bigger than the 97 revolts in 1977-78 when the late James Callaghan was struggling, and failing, to keep the Parliamentary Labour Party together.
The paper reveals that despite these rebellions the Government won every whipped vote, even though it sometimes appeared to face defeat. It had to negotiate its way out of trouble on several occasions, most notably on the abolition of the 10p tax rate, when a £2.7 billion package was needed to appease the rebels. Support from the Democratic Unionists helped the Government to a nine-vote victory on the 42-day plan, but it also managed to talk dozens of its own MPs out of rebelling.
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