Under fire Number 10 strives to agree a deal with Covid Tory rebel MPs

Number 10 and the government chief whip Mark Spencer moved today to try to shut down the Tory rebellion on Covid restrictions.

Backbenchers, led by Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the powerful 1922 Committee, are suspicious of the government’s in-house scientific advice and angry about curtailments to civil liberties. Leadin Tory rebel Steve Baker MP today likened Boris Johnson to Theoden from Lord of the Rings. “The king is under the spell of his advisers, and he has to be woken up from that spell,” said Baker on Times Radio. “When he wakes from that spell, joy comes to pass in the kingdom.”