21:54

I’ve just bumped into the Tory party chair, Brandon Lewis, at the House of Commons. He told me he was slipped for the trade bill votes earlier in the afternoon because he was busy in meetings at No 10. He said the whips mistakenly sent him a message asking him to come and vote in the crunch ones, so he did as requested.

When I asked whether he would be sending Jo Swinson a bunch of flowers to apologise, he suggested that the party’s chief whip, Julian Smith, would be getting in touch with the Lib Dem MP instead.



Lewis has also responded to Swinson on Twitter in similar terms: