Some disturbing but far from unexpected news last night:

"If No 10 proposes tighter restrictions straight after Christmas, those cabinet ministers with freedom-loving instincts – who gave us all so much hope last week – must speak out," the Observer quoted one member of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs as saying.

"In any future leadership contest, we will all remember how they acted this week. We need real, gutsy, freedom-loving Conservatives to rescue us from this madness."


Forget the precise topic, and look at the overall flavour. The Covid Recovery Group is, largely, the same people as the ERG and that was similar to the group who harassed Cameron some much.

Once again, they are making clear that whoever the future PM may be, they have to do want the the group wants. Cameron, May and   Johnson were all fundamentally weakened by the group, and they are signalling strongly they intend to be Kingmakers to whoever comes next.