Originally Posted by
Saracen
He's certainly entitled to force a vote. He gets the Opposition day motion and can use it pretty much as he wishes.
Whether he'd have won is much more up for debate. What would the govt whips have done, and who would have defied them? What LibDems feel. by and large, is pretty obvious, but would they risk a government defeat that might split the coalition, over this? I'd have thought it's doubtful that enough would. And unless either quite a few of them vote against, or a load of Tories do, EM simply doesn't have the numbers to win. He can stir the pot, but without a gov't back-bench revolt, can't choose the day's menu.