That this government is bad at maths will not come as a surprise to many readers. Thus far, however, in its endless parade of resounding successes, this has been mostly confined to miscalculations on the economy. Now, though, government innumeracy seems to have spilled out into its Parliamentary arithmetic too.

Despite having a landslide majority, Labour has managed to find itself, not quite a year into power, with a serious backbench rebellion on its hands. This is doubly impressive: not only is the government’s majority enormous, it is composed of an intake of infamously supine backbenchers, desperate for attention and promotion from No. 10. They make the 1997 Labour cohort look like The Few. To have provoked this lot into open rebellion is quite the achievement.

The welfare reform was no more! It had ceased to be! It had expired and gone to meet its maker!

Enter Liz Kendall, whose flagship welfare reform bill has run into choppy waters as backbenchers threatened to torpedo its passage through parliament. Kendall wanted to give the impression she had come with open ears; ‘we’ve listened’ being her most oft repeated introit. In fact, an open chequebook might have been more appropriate. More and more concessions were announced – from a rise in Universal Credit to another £300 million in disability allowances. Reassessments for benefits were stripped back, the constraints on those claiming PiP were........

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