1. Ready for this explanation? Tory sources say chief whip considered but did not go through with telling any MPs on short term pairs to vote even though they weren’t meant to
2. But Julian Smith did, by accident, they say, tell Brandon Lewis to vote, breaking the long term pair of Jo Swinson
3. This explanation is, shall we say, not exactly likely to calm things down completely - clear Tories couldn’t deny what was going on
4. Update - Tory sources say chief whip considered and might have told some MPs to break their short term pair - but if he did, none of the MPs actually went through with it
5. Chief whips's defence for breaking pairing system is that he only thought they should break a particular kind of pair - this is going to make a lot of people very very cross - one insider says it's 'dog ate my homework'
