A MOTION to ban fracking which was originally considered to be a de-facto confidence vote in the UK Government has been defeated by 230 votes to 326.
Conservative whips initially stated the vote on whether to allocate Commons time to consider legislation to stop shale gas extraction was being treated as a “confidence motion” as pressure continues to mount on the Prime Minister.
However, after a series of Tory MPs signalled they would not take part in the vote, climate minister Graham Stuart told the Commons: “Quite clearly this is not a confidence vote”.
