At least 55 Tory MPs are backing the Brady amendment to give Parliament the final say on any new COVID-19 pandemic measures - and may win.
On Tuesday The Conservative Home website published a list of the Tory rebels, along with 13 opposition MPs who have signed Sir Graham Brady's amendment to the Coronavirus Act passed in March.
ITV political editor Robert Peston tweeted on Monday that he expected Health Secretary Matt Hancock to announce a compromise in Parliament on Wednesday "to give MPs a prior vote on national coronavirus measures, except in an emergency, when the vote would be a few days after imposition."
— Robert Peston (@Peston) September 28, 2020
Political gossip site Guido Fawkes said the number of Tory MPs supporting the bill could be as high as 80.
The 55 Conservative MPs named include Work and Pensions Secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former Brexit secretary David Davis.
They are joined by Parliamentary Labour Party chair John Cryer, former deputy leader Harriet Harman and former transport and Northern Ireland minister John Spellar and four shadow cabinet members: Dawn Butler, Clive Lewis, Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Democratic Unionist Parliament chief whip Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley Jr were among three DUP MPs supporting the Brady amendment, along with Julian Lewis, the Eurosceptic Tory who had the whip withdrawn in July.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government has only just headed off a rebellion by some 30 MPs against its Internal Market Bill, which would make unilateral changes to last year's European Union Withdrawal Act in case deadlocked talks towards a post-transition period trade deal fail.
