David Cameron's Tory backbenchers cheer him in Parliament. But in private MPs complain of U-turns and being marginalised by an elite that lavished attention on News International

When a dog-tired David Cameron rose to his feet in the House of Commons at 11.35am on Wednesday the roar of approval from the Tory benches would have done credit to a conquering hero. But Cameron will have felt like nothing of the sort. He had cut short a trip to South Africa and rushed back to make an emergency statement on the phone-hacking scandal that was threatening to wreck his premiership. The House was tense. For the first time since he entered Downing Street in May last year some MPs were questioning his survival. Everyone knew Cameron had to perform.

The prime minister mixed contrition with resolve. "Of course I am sorry, and I regret the furore it has caused," he said of his decision to employ and stand by the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson at No 10. On the Labour benches, former culture secretary Ben Bradshaw, sitting directly opposite the prime minister, gestured repeatedly as if to slit his own throat while mouthing at Cameron that he was "finished".

But the Tories would have none of it. "I say to the right honourable gentleman: stop hunting for feeble conspiracy theories and start rising to events!" was Cameron's retort to Labour leader Ed Miliband, delivered to more cheers as, incredibly, the PM attempted to seize the moral high ground.

But that was the theatre inside the chamber. Outside, as MPs came and went, the Tory mood was very different. Gloomy backbench MPs wandered around the Palace of Westminster throughout the day clutching a weighty folder. On its front was the heading "Lines to take on Phone Hacking". One young MP rolled his eyes when asked what it was. "From the whips' office," he said resentfully. "It has all the lines we have to spout in the House and when we talk to people like you."

The Tory whips, he said, had told MPs to cheer extra loudly whenever possible, because Labour had been making the running over recent days. Backbenchers had also been given "helpful" questions to ask during the debate to highlight how Labour had been just as close to Rupert Murdoch during its 13 years in power. By and large the Tory MPs obeyed their orders and did their bit. But many wondered how and why it had come to this. "Asking questions written by the whips on this kind of issue is not really what I came into politics to do," said one.

They knew that the show of loyalty to Cameron had, in large part, been just that – a show. In his early days as prime minister, Cameron had seemed unassailable: young, dynamic, convincing on the media. Even after announcing a programme of austerity last June, he appeared to retain a good measure of public support. But here he was relying on Commons backing that had been orchestrated by party managers to save his skin – backing that disguised the true feelings of many in his own party.

When the prime minister met his back benchers on Wednesday evening for a meeting of the 1922 Committee, he received rousing cheers again, clearly audible down the corridor. One MP said the "reporters standing loitering outside will have heard it loud and clear". That, though, was the all too obvious point of the exercise.

The reality is that the controversy over Andy Coulson, and the entire hacking scandal that has exposed No 10's closeness to the Murdoch set, has reinforced lingering resentments against Cameron and his circle that many in his party already harboured.

"It is very serious," said one middle-ranking minister on Thursday. Backbench Tories and ministers, he said, felt Downing Street listened to the likes of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, but not to them. No 10, said the minister, was "completely dysfunctional" and seemed to operate in isolation from the rest of government.

It was not just backbenchers who felt unloved by Cameron but senior members of the government, too. "You send letters in and they disappear and you never get a reply," said the minister. No effort was made to make ordinary MPs feel involved, except on occasions such as Wednesday, when the prime minister desperately needed their help. "He has been told about this by many of us. We have tried to get the message through. It is OK for him while he is up, but when he is down he will need people to help him. And this scandal will not disappear," the minister added.

Last week Paul Goodman, a former Tory MP who now writes for the ConservativeHome website, said there was not even any real sense of unity or cohesive structure inside the No 10 machine. "It's true that the twists and turns of this saga are impossible to anticipate. But the central facts are clear," Goodman said. "The Downing Street team isn't hanging together to push the prime minister's case. And if they don't hang together, they're in danger of hanging separately."

The impression was that sofa government was back in fashion in Downing Street, as all but the inner circle was allowed in on the act.

What depresses Tories most is that Cameron had promised to be different, transparent, inclusive. In a speech three months before the general election in May 2010, he said: "We have a political philosophy that at its heart is about taking power and control from the political elite and giving it to the man and woman in the street."

When he decided to open up the Tory candidates' list to all-comers so that the party would benefit from the experience of doctors, lawyers, nurses, those who sought seats believed him. "Yes, we've got to open up the talent that is available, and this is an opportunity to do that," he said at the time.

But soon after the election, as health secretary Andrew Lansley was let loose to push health reforms that had not been in the Conservative election manifesto, Sarah Wollaston, the new MP for Totnes, who worked for 24 years as a doctor, complained that she had been told "to say nothing and vote with the government".

She felt the whips were trying to prevent her from airing her doubts about the reforms as the health bill was being scrutinised in parliament. In the end Wollaston's concerns were taken on board and the biggest changes to the NHS since its formation had to be watered down in a humiliating retreat that did huge damage to the government.

Over recent months successive U-turns, on health, criminal justice, school sport, the selling of forests and many more, have left backbenchers demoralised, feeling that they are part of a party that makes mistakes because it is run by a remote elite around Cameron, which believes it is always right and does not want to ask the opinion of others. Many complain, too, that they cannot use the 1922 Committee, the channel through which MPs' concerns have traditionally been relayed to No 10, to voice their opinions without being briefed against for doing so.

Recently, however, the resentment has reached new levels as backbenchers have compared the prime minister's treatment of them with the way he has lavished attention on News International. Cameron has met its top executives 26 times in the 15 months since he became prime minister.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has released details showing that the courting of News International has also involved, repeatedly, members of the Cameron inner circle. Downing Street's special advisers were hosted by senior employees of News International or its media outlets on 26 occasions in the first seven months of this government.

The bureau calculated that this was 23% of the 111 events on the hospitality register, far outstripping all other organisations. Combined, business organisations, lobby groups and charities entertained special advisers just 28 times.

Downing Street staff were almost twice as likely to receive hospitality from News International than the BBC, Britain's largest news organisation, which entertained Downing Street special advisers only 14 times. Andy Coulson was entertained by organisations with links to Rupert Murdoch on five occasions before he resigned, including lunches with representatives of the Times, the Sun, Sky News and the Wall Street Journal. The bureau also discovered that Coulson arranged for Alexander Kutner, the son of Sky News anchor Kay Burley, to get access to prime minister's questions. And all this as News International was seeking approval for its bid to take over BSkyB.

Ed Llewellyn, Cameron's chief of staff, was treated by News International to tickets to a concert on 17 December, along with Kate Fall, who runs Cameron's office. Gabby Bertin, Cameron's official spokeswoman, was wined and dined by News International nine times, including a trip to last year's Wimbledon.

Labour MP Paul Farrelly, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee, said: "These statistics reinforce concerns that News International's tentacles were everywhere just at the time when Rupert Murdoch was trying to clinch the biggest deal of his life.

"At the same time, it was always on Murdoch's agenda to cut the BBC down, and we can only suspect Murdoch and his advisers used these sport and entertainment junkets as an opportunity to outline his agenda in this area."

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "This government has published all the information that we have promised to publish – which is more than any previous government."

This week the Cabinet Office will also publish the contacts cabinet ministers have had with media executives. Ministers such as Michael Gove are known to have had regular social engagements with the likes of Rebekah Brooks. Again, the government will try to boast that it is being transparent. But it is not a line that will convince many in the Conservative party, who insist transparency has only been forced upon the powers that be by a scandal that has shown that their natural inclination is to be the reverse.

A few weeks ago Cameron had still looked impregnable as Labour leader Ed Miliband struggled and Nick Clegg remained wounded. But the hacking furore has shaken the kaleidoscope. Cameron is damaged and his party is restive. "We desperately need to change the way we do things before it is too late," said a government minister.