2019 suspension of rebel Conservative MPs

On 3 September 2019, the British Conservative Party withdrew the whip from 21 of its MPs who had supported an emergency motion to allow the House of Commons to undertake proceedings on the European Union (Withdrawal) (No.

[1] In the hours after the vote, the Chief Whip Mark Spencer informed the rebel MPs that they were no longer entitled to sit as Conservatives.

The suspended MPs included two former Chancellors of the Exchequer (Philip Hammond and the Father of the House, Kenneth Clarke), seven other former Cabinet members (Greg Clark, David Gauke, Justine Greening, Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin, Caroline Nokes and Rory Stewart), and 12 others including Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill.

[4][5] On 29 October 2019, 10 of the suspended MPs had the whip restored;[6] of these, six stood down at the December 2019 election, while four contested it as Conservative candidates, all retaining their seats.

Several of the MPs had voted for Theresa May's ultimately unsuccessful Withdrawal Agreement, and subsequently continued to oppose a "no deal" Brexit scenario.

[38] Two days later, the Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd resigned from the Cabinet and surrendered the Conservative whip in Parliament in protest at Boris Johnson's policy on Brexit and the treatment of the 21 rebel MPs.