Why a large Commons majority doesn’t make Boris Johnson safe from Tory rebels

A big election win doesn’t stop a prime minister facing a turbulent time in the House of Commons, writes Sean O'Grady

MPs want to time-limit the Chinese firm’s access to the UK’s planned 5G network (Reuters)

Whatever the opposite of the gift that keeps on giving is, that is what Huawei represents to the Johnson government. It is both cause and catalyst for the first Conservative parliamentary rebellion since the general election.

A group of former minsters and other backbenchers, mostly tending towards the Eurosceptic, Atlanticist wing of the Tory party, are so upset by the Chinese company’s access to the UK’s planned 5G network that they plan to lay an amendment to the draft legislation next Tuesday that will time-limit Huawei’s involvement (ie not beyond 31 December 2022).

They are perhaps motivated in part by the prospects for the putative UK-US trade deal, which may be hampered by this Chinese complication. Donald Trump was reportedly “apoplectic” when Boris Johnson called the US president to tell him the news about the UK government’s plan. The Huawei issue seems destined to haunt ministers for years to come.