Ahead of Tuesday’s Brexit vote, Johnson wants Tory moderates to fear expulsion – but he knows this would permanently break his party

Not often do MPs make great personal sacrifices. They can drift along obeying their whip, hoping some small ministerial plum rolls their way if they behave. The Commons is a comfortable place – those tea rooms, those bars. Mixing with pleasant pals of similar ideological ilk, assiduous work in safe constituencies – many MPs have barely troubled the national news in decades on the back benches. Until now.

Here comes a rare moment with a vote on a nation-changing question of such gravity that it takes their beliefs beyond the reach of whips. They may think ahead, to the time when post-Brexit national decline is beyond dispute in the history books, and that grandchild asks: “Why didn’t you stop it?” What can they say then? “I never thought Boris Johnson would really do it. He said it was just a negotiating ploy, but he drove us over the edge.”

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