Welfare climbdown lets genie out of the bottle, and no one knows what happens next

Inside No 10 and the Treasury there is anger at the backbenchers who have caused this collapse in government’s authority. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

A fortnight ago in a corridor near the House of Commons chamber, a close confidant of the prime minister smiled and shook his head when asked if the government could really lose the welfare vote.

MPs would come to their senses, he predicted, because they would eventually understand that to fundamentally undermine the government’s authority would have consequences which no one could control.