Will Miliband’s BSkyB move split the coalition?
Can Labour expect the support of LDs and even some Tories?
Several people have asked for my view of which way the 57 Lib Dem will vote if Ed Miliband goes ahead with his plan to move a motion on News Corporation’s planned take-over of the parts of BSkyB that it doesn’t already own.
The debate and vote would take place on Wednesday and so far today we’ve seen comments from Simon Hughes and Chris Huhne.
My guess is that virtually all the back-benchers will support Miliband’s motion – the big question is what will ministers do? Here I think that there could be a split with some abstaining and some supporting the motion
It hard to see any of them voting against particularly as we are not too far off the party conference season.
More interestingly will be Tory back-benchers. Will Dave secure 100% support or will we see rebels there as well?
One tactic the Tories might deploy if they think that a defeat is a certainty is to try to ensure that all the party 306 MPs abstain on the grounds that this is a partisan move by Labour with no legal effect.