Ellwood has Tory whip temporarily restored and can vote in leadership contest

Senior MP Tobias Ellwood has had the Conservative whip temporarily restored – just in time to vote in the fifth round of the Tory leadership contest.

Mr Ellwood had the whip withdrawn as a punishment on Tuesday after he failed to take part in Monday’s confidence vote in the government.

The chairman of the influential defence select committee has argued he was unable to return from a meeting with the president of Moldova due to “unprecedented disruption”.

Having the whip removed meant Mr Ellwood, a long-term critic of Boris Johnson, was not able to vote in the party’s leadership ballot on Tuesday which saw Kemi Badenoch eliminated from the contest.

But this afternoon it was confirmed that Mr Ellwood, who is in Odesa, has had the whip temporarily restored and will be able to vote by proxy.

This means another person will be able to vote for his preferred candidate, Trade minister Penny Mordaunt, on his behalf.

“Delighted to report my request for a momentary return of the whip has been granted – just long enough for my proxy vote to be cast!” Mr Ellwood posted on social media.

A spokesperson for the Whips’ Office said they “took a neutral position” on the leadership contest.

They continued: “After Tobias Ellwood MP failed to attend an important vote he had the Conservative Party whip suspended.

“To ensure that the Whips Office neutrality in the leadership contest can not be questioned, the Whip has been temporarily unsuspended from Tobias Ellwood MP.

“Upon the conclusion of today’s leadership contest, Tobias Ellwood MP will have the whip suspended.”

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Speaking earlier about the conflict within the Tory party, Mr Ellwood told Sky News: “The nation wants to be impressed and inspired and not demoralised”.

He added: “We need to perhaps exhibit greater decorum, dial the temperature down a bit, showcase the ideas, the vision, focus on those things are important that the nation wants to see.”

He warned that without an end to Conservative infighting “we’re just going to let ourselves down and indeed, commit ourselves to probably a long while in opposition”.

Mr Ellwood also disputed the claim that he did not acknowledge the whips call for him to return, telling Kay Burley: “I didn’t ignore it at all, I kept the whips’ office informed the entire time.”

He added that runways which had melted in the UK due to the heatwave and security issues in Moldova both impacted his journey back.

Mr Ellwood said he deeply regretted losing the whip and hoped it would only be temporary.

“I am very sorry I didn’t make it back,” he added.

Mr Ellwood told Sky News that he did not want to speculate about the reasons why he specifically lost the whip and whether or not he would have lost it if he had been a Liz Truss backer, rather than supporting Ms Mordaunt.

“I’d be then fuelling the blue-on-blue [attacks], which I’m actually trying to avoid,” he said.

“Let’s focus on how we can move forward and make sure that we conclude this leadership campaign to the highest professional standard that I think the British people want to see.”

But speaking to Sky News earlier, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke defended the government’s initial decision to strip the Tory Party whip from Mr Ellwood, saying the senior MP had made a “very serious mistake”.

“He was in Moldova, rather than Ukraine. He was not on government work, he is a backbench MP,” Mr Clarke said.

He also suggested that Mr Ellwood knew the consequences of missing the vote.

“Look, I’m not a member of whip’s office. What I will say is that there are clear arrangements in place which all MPs understand, which govern the conditions for absence from votes, most especially critical votes like a motion of confidence in the government, which has the potential to trigger a general election,” Mr Clarke said.

Mr Ellwood was not the only Conservative MP to miss Monday’s confidence vote, but a Conservative source said on Tuesday that all other Tory MPs who were absent for reasons such as family illness were paired appropriately as agreed by the whips – meaning another individual voted on their behalf.

“Other Conservative MPs cancelled foreign trips, left poorly relatives and one MP’s mother died on the morning of the vote and still attended and voted,” the Tory source said.

Losing the whip effectively means that an MP is expelled from their party because they have not followed strict instruction from the leadership.

They do not lose their seat and remain as an MP – but sit as an independent in the commons until the whip is restored.

Ms Mordaunt is seen as the greatest challenger to Ms Truss, who is being backed by Mr Johnson’s allies to make it into the final two vying for Number 10.

MPs voted 349 to 238, majority 111, to support the motion stating that the Commons has confidence in the government on Monday evening.

The victory means that Mr Johnson is expected to continue in Downing Street until September, when Tory members choose the winner from the final two selected by Tory MPs.