Thread by @MattChorley

You’re a busy person. You have a job, chores to do, perhaps children to feed and water. You’re not able to commit full time to trying to follow what is happening inside the Conservative Party.

We are here to help. It is actually very simple:
thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/b…

Theresa May was a Remainer during the EU referendum campaign, loyal to the government in which she served, while the Brexiteers were the rebels.

Then she became prime minister and declared “Brexit means Brexit” and the Brexiteers became the loyalists and Remainers the rebels.

This held for exactly two years when May sealed her Chequers deal which was seen as a shift to a softer Brexit, pleasing the Remainers and upsetting the Brexiteers.

So the Brexiteers revolted (David Davis, Boris Johnson and Steve Baker were particularly revolting) while the Remainers backed it and became loyalists again. 7 more Brexiteers resigned in seven days to become rebels, though I’m still not convinced all of the names are real.

So Jacob Rees-Mogg went from King Loyalist to King Rebel and tabled amendments to the government’s taxation (cross-border trade) bill, which Remainer loyalists vowed to oppose.

That was until the government announced it was accepting the amendments to its own plans, meaning the rebels were suddenly on the side of the government and the loyalists were the rebels.

Guto Bebb, a Remainer, resigned to vote against the amendments, supporting what was actually government policy at lunchtime but wasn’t by bedtime.

“As they say, treason is nothing but timing,” one minister told me last night.
thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/b…

You will all be tested on this before the end of term