Liz Truss has set herself on a fresh collision course with her MPs after Downing Street vowed to take “proportionate disciplinary action” against those who failed to back the government on fracking.
The move will be seen as a huge gamble at a time when the prime minister is already facing mounting calls to quit after barely six weeks in the job.
Although the government last night comfortably defeated a Labour attempt to control the parliamentary timetable in order to ban fracking, although around 40 Tory MPs - including Boris Johnson and ex-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng - failed to vote.
While some will have been given permission to miss the vote, others appear to have chosen to have dodged it altogether.
That was despite being warned that it was effectively a vote of confidence, meaning they faced losing the Tory whip if they failed to back the government.
Adding to the confusion, energy minister Graham Stuart told MPs it was not a confidence vote, leading to reports that chief whip Wendy Morton and her deputy, Craig Whittaker, had resigned.
But in a message sent at 1.33am this morning, Downing Street insisted the PM had “full confidence” in Morton and Whittaker.
“Throughout the day, the whips had treated the vote as a confidence motion,” a spokesman said.
“The minister at the despatch box was told, mistakenly, by Downing Street to say that it was not.
“However, Conservative MPs were fully aware that the vote was subject to a three line whip. The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the government.
“Those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the government can expect proportionate disciplinary action.”
Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker last night added to the febrile atmosphere by saying that any MP who failed to vote with the government should be kicked out of the Tory Party.
He said: “I am absolutely clear that if a Conservative MP votes to take from the government the power to control the business of the Commons and gives it to the Labour Party, that in normal circumstances should mean they are out.”