ROWAN ATKINSON’S supporters in Parliament mounted a sophisticated ambush to defeat the Government over its laws against religious hatred. To borrow a phrase from the comedian’s television series Blackadder, they had “a cunning plan”.

They realised that only 25 to 30 Labour MPs might rebel and that in a trial of strength with government whips they would lose. So, instead of seeking publicity to gain momentum for a rebellion, they opted for stealth and targeted lobbying.

Labour rebels worked closely with Evan Harris (Lib Dem, Oxford West and Abingdon), who supplied briefing material and urged Dominic Grieve, the Tory spokesman whose MPs were on a two-line whip, to get the maximum number of Tory MPs to the Commons.

By the time the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill left the Lords last week its opponents had only a few days to organise and table amendments but they did so with military efficiency. Only three rebel Labour MPs signed cross-party amendments objecting to the Bill as it stood, in order not to draw attention to others ready to join them.

Evangelical Christian groups were persuaded not to lobby atheist Labour MPs, which was judged counter-productive. Instead Labour rebels were targeted by humanist or Roman Catholic groups, either directly or by getting constituents to contact them. Rowan Atkinson and the writers Ian McEwan and Hari Kunzru joined the campaign, but in a low-key way to avoid wide publicity that might alert government whips, who only realised the danger on Tuesday when two dozen of their MPs were helping in the Dunfermline by-election.

Some Labour rebels admitted to their whips that they would vote against, while others replied that they were “still thinking about it” — a phrase that should strike terror into a whip’s heart.

One leading Labour rebel told The Times: “We could never surprise them again like this, I don’t see, for at least a decade. Whips should watch The West Wing. On Sunday night the Democrats were trying to get something through Congress and used exactly the same tactics — low profile.”

Once they realised that an upset was possible, Tory whips decided not to summon back the ten or so MPs they had abroad on select committee trips, again in order not to alert Government whips, after calculating that there were more Labour loyalists abroad.

The sweeping restrictions on the religious hatred law accepted by MPs were drawn up by a Liberal Democrat peer in an hour. Lord Lester of Herne Hill wrote a ground-breaking statement protecting freedom of expression and ensuring that prosecutors would have to prove intent to stir up religious hatred.

Lord Lester, a leading human rights QC and Lib Dem spokesman, also took out the Government’s proposal to incriminate those who used “abusive or insulting language or behaviour”. His amendments were passed by the Lords in October by 260 to 111 after a cross-party coalition built up against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. The version of the Bill that will pass into law after the one-vote Government defeat includes a much-curtailed new crime of incitement to religious hatred.

Lord Lester told The Times: “I drafted amendments that gave them the shell of their Bill but drew its sting entirely. It didn’t take very long. I don’t know if it was half an hour, it may have been an hour.”

REBEL GROUPS

The 21 Labour MPs who rebelled in the crucial vote fell broadly into five categories:

CATHOLIC
Joe Benton, Ronnie Campbell, Frank Cook, John Grogan, Andrew Mackinlay, Geraldine Smith, Bob Wareing

HUMANIST
Colin Challen, Bill Etherington, Ian Gibson, Gordon Prentice

CIVIL RIGHTS
Mark Fisher, Bob Marshall-Andrews, Rudi Vis, Tony Wright

HARD LEFT/CAMPAIGN GROUP
Jeremy Corbyn, Kelvin Hopkins, John McDonnell, David Taylor

BLOODY MINDED/INDEPENDENT
Paul Flynn, Kate Hoey

REBELLED IN EARLIER VOTE ONLY
Roger Berry, Frank Field, Gwyneth Dunwoody, Peter Kilfoyle, Alan Meale

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