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Tuesday, 25 October 2011

It's the way the BBC tell 'em

The BBC report that:
'David Cameron has defeated a bid to grant a referendum on EU membership, despite the largest rebellion against a Tory prime minister over Europe.

The motion was defeated by 483 votes to 111, after all Tory, Lib Dem and Labour MPs had been instructed to oppose it.

In total, 79 Tories voted for the motion while two Conservative tellers, plus two other Tory MPs who abstained, effectively defied the whips.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the revolt was a "humiliation" for the PM.

"If he can't win the argument with his own backbenchers, how can the country have confidence that he can win the arguments that matter for Britain?" he said.'
So that was just Conservative MPs rebelling against their party leader's instructions was it? Of course not, the figures are here where they are shown by Party so the Conservative MPs come first.
I count 19 Labour MPs, 1 Lib Dem MP, 1 Green MP, 8 Democratic Unionist MPss and 1 Independent MP.

Proportionately that's:
81/303 Conservative MPs - 26.7% rebellion
19/254 Labour MPs - 7.5% rebellion
1/57 Lib Dem MPs - 1.7% rebellion
So yes the Conservative rebellion was much larger than Labour's, but surely the Labour rebellion was worthy of mention near the top of that original BBC article rather than being hidden quite a long way down it.

It is interesting that the BBC's pin-up politician, their go to girl on so many subjects voted for a referendum; I wonder how the BBC will ask Caroline Lucas about that?

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