David Cameron today fired one of his
top policy advisers for failing to vote for the government in last
week's vote on military intervention in Syria.
Tory
MP Jesse Norman has been kicked off the Number 10 policy board after
refusing to back the Prime Minister's call for action against the Assad
regime's use of chemical weapons.
It
is the first high profile sacking in the wake of the humiliating
defeat, which the government lost by just 13 votes - but more are
expected.
Fired: Tory MP Jesse Norman (left) has been
fired from the Number 10 policy board after failing to vote for David
Cameron's call for action in Syria
In an extraordinary assault on Mr
Cameron's authority, 39 coalition MPs joined Labour in voting against a
watered-down Government motion supporting the ‘principle’ of military
action.
But a total of 31 - including Mr Norman - did not vote at all.
There
were shouts of ‘resign’ from the Labour benches as the result – 285
votes to 272 – was announced to a shocked House of Commons.
Mr Cameron today expressed 'regret' at the Commons defeat as he began the process of punishing Tories who defied him.
Mr Norman has become the PM's first
scalp, with Downing Street making clear 'there are consequences for not
voting with Government'.
However, MailOnline understands two Lib Dem ministerial aides who also abstained will not be sacked by Nick Clegg.
Lorely
Burt,
parliamentary private secretary to Treasury minister Danny Alexander,
and Tessa Munt, aide to Business Secretary Vince Cable, told Lib Dem
whips they could not back the government but were not given permission
to abstain.
However Mr Clegg, who argued passionately in favour of action in Syria, has made clear that both will continue in their jobs.
In all 10 members of the government failed to vote at the end of Thursday's eight0hour debate.
It included two ministers - Justine Greening and Mark Simmond - who were
chatting in a room near the Commons and claimed not to have heard the
division bell to tell them the crunch vote was under way.
A
new Ipsos Mori survey found 64 per cent of people were dissatisfied
with the Prime Minister's handling of the crisis and 61 per cent with Ed
Miliband's response to the events.
Just 36 per cent were satisfied with Mr Cameron and 39 per cent were satisfied with Mr Miliband.
Row: David Cameron today said expressed 'regret'
the way Labour voted against his motion on military action while Labour
leader Ed Miliband accused the Prime Minister of a rush to war
Also absent from Thursday's vote were Tory Treasury
minister David Gauke, Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb and Lib Dem
whips Jenny Willott and Mark Hunter.
Mr Gauke, Mr Duncan and Mr Webb were all on holiday and given permission by the whips to miss the crucial vote.
Ken Clarke, the minister without portfolio, missed the vote for family reasons.
If the missing ministers, whips and aides had all turned
up, Mr Cameron would only have needed to persuade four other no-show MPs
- including Mr Norman - in order to win the vote.
Former Tory cabinet minister Peter
Lilley, another member of the Downing Street policy board, insisted that
instead of being shocked by the defeat the Prime Minister ‘should have
seen it coming’.
He added:
‘A government defeat on an issue of war may be unprecedented, but defeat
on the Syria vote did not come out of the blue.
You
can certainly blame poor party management, failure to prepare the
ground, underestimating the poisonous legacy of Iraq — but such failings
are common enough,’ he writes in this week’s Spectator magazine.
‘The
biggest single factor is one that ministers, the media and MPs
themselves have failed to understand: Parliament has changed.’
He argues that MPs are now more rebellious because they react to the opinion of their voters not the demands of the whips.
During Prime Minister's Questions today Labour leader Mr Miliband accused Mr Cameron of seeking a 'rush to war'.
The Prime Minister repeated his
assurance that the UK 'can't be part and won't be part' of any strike on
the Assad regime after his defeat in the Commons last week.
But
he accused the Opposition of needlessly blocking even the principle of
an armed response to the use of chemical weapons after it failed to
accept his offer of a second vote to approve direct action.
Back again: It was the first session of Prime
Minister's Questions since Mr Cameron's damaging defeat during last
week's emergency debate on Syria
Measured Commons exchanges
between the party leaders at question time turned acrimonious when Mr
Miliband said the vote was 'not about Britain shirking its global
responsibility, it was about preventing a rush to war'.
But
Mr Cameron hit back: 'Last week the House of Commons voted clearly and I
have said I respect the outcome out of that vote and I won't be
bringing back plans for British participation in military action.
'I
agree with you that we must use everything we have in our power - our
diplomatic networks, our influence with other countries, our membership
of all the key bodies, the G8, the G20, the UN, the EU, Nato - we must
use all that influence to bring to bear.
'My
only regret of last week is that I don't think it was necessary to
divide the House on a vote that would have led to a vote but he took the
decision that it was.'
dailymail.co.uk
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