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19th July 2018
11:28am BST

Brandon Lewis, the Conservative Chair, did break a pairing deal with the Liberal Democrat's Jo Swinson - who is on maternity leave - but claimed it was a mistake. However, Sam Coates of the Times reports that the chief whip informed Lewis that a crunch vote was 'going to be close' and that 'he needed him to vote.'
According to Coates' report, there are two other Tory MPs who were told by Smith that they should vote on Tuesday despite being paired. Both are said to have ignored the instruction. The Tory whips' office have so far refused to comment on the story, but Tom Watson, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, has called for resignations if the Times story is true.
https://twitter.com/tom_watson/status/1019862058232373250
Conservative MP Heidi Allen has also voiced her concern about the story, commenting: 'No matter how tough the going gets, principle, integrity and standards matter. Without those, what's left?'
https://twitter.com/heidiallen75/status/1019857235499978752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019857235499978752&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2Fblog%2Flive%2F2018%2Fjul%2F19%2Fmay-will-have-to-revise-chequers-plan-in-face-of-tory-opposition-says-former-brexit-minister-politics-live
Despite Lewis apologising for reneging on the pairing deal, Swinson slammed the 'breaking of trust', calling it 'calculated' and 'desperate stuff':
https://twitter.com/joswinson/status/1019298949344219137
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