Boris Johnson has suffered a big rebellion after 36 Tory MPs voted to ban Huawei from Britain’s 5G network.

The government defeated an amendment seeking to ban the Chinese company from the telecoms network by 2023 by 306 votes to 282.

The scale of the rebellion, which cut the government’s majority from 80 to 24, will be of concern to the government as it prepares to table legislation formalising Huawei’s role.

The rebels included the former cabinet ministers Iain Duncan Smith, David Davis, Liam Fox, Damian Green, Owen Paterson and Esther McVey and the chairmen of the defence and foreign affairs select committees.

Afterwards the government pledged to “engage intensively” with the rebels, who said that the vote was a “warning shot”. They had