The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has missed a whole series of votes on his own bill. Could it have anything to do with it being regressive and unpopular with his own party’s grassroots?

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, currently going through Parliament, contains a number provisions which weaken the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, as well as attacking employment rights and watering down protections against discrimination and harassment.

But despite the fact that this is a flagship piece of BIS legislation, Saint Vince has been nowhere to be seen. Cable has missed:

The vote on the bill’s programme motion .

. The vote on measures about executive pay .

. The vote on measures about the EHRC .

. And even the vote at the bill’s third reading.

The reforms are based on the Beecroft Report, a much criticised report by Tory donor Adrian Beecroft, and have even prompted a letter to Lynne Featherstone from the chair of a Lib Dem ethnic minority group — concerned about the “abolition by stealth” of the ECHR.

Readers shouldn’t be surprised, though — this is exactly what Vince did with the vote to lengthen the kick-in for unfair dismissal rights to two years.