As reported in the press last night, the Labour Party recently concluded a vote on its continuing presence in the Grand Coalition with an astonishing tie. Today, the Times can reveal the internal debate that occurred before the vote, and shed light on the reasons for the Labour Party’s almost-mutiny.

Indeed, it is no secret that the Labour Party is split on its controversial alliance with the Tories. The Government’s own press secretary was recently revealed to be briefing in secret against the Government, and one of its key defenders - the Labour leader himself - was only weeks ago kicked out of the Commons for not attending enough votes.

What is perhaps surprising is that the second-most senior member of the cabinet, the Chancellor /u/elliottc99, was vocally in favour of leaving the Government for various reasons. The Chancellor opposed the coalition’s formation. In a passionate monologue in Labour’s internal party debate on the matter, he noted that the Tory leadership is “extremely stubborn”, and he also took aim at the Scottish Tory leader and former Tory deputy leader, /u/really-friends, whom he accused of “[refusing] to continue with a debate… which can be really frustrating and not very productive”. He also made reference to the intra-Government feud over the fallout from Scotland’s welfare referendum.

/u/really-friends popped up again in Justice Secretary /u/secretary_salami’s speech, where he alleged that the Scottish Tory leader has “given up” on Government leadership due to Labour Party inactivity. Meanwhile, Labour deputy leader, /u/Imperator_Pastollini, alleged that the Tories are generally dismissive and in any case make no effort to consult the Labour leadership. The Times cannot independently verify the accusations.

But the Tory agenda-pushing theme continued in speeches by other Labour Party MPs. The Labour Chief Whip, /u/JellyCow99, accused the Tories of committing “the ultimate faux pas” by putting “their own bills ahead of ours”, and “forcing unilateral action through on legislation Labour did not sign off on”. The Labour Chief Whip was not specific on what legislation this refers to, but clearly Labour MPs feel they are playing very much second fiddle to the Tories on the submission, debating and passing of bills in the House.

Support for the coalition was muted, but tentatively present. Labour MP /u/Please_Dont_Yell and party member /u/Jakexbox urged caution on breaking an agreement with the Tories, while veteran Labour Party member, and former leader, /u/athanaton, cautioned the party on what it would mean to leave the Government, in that they will have “to explain why 1. We left, 2. We joined in the first place, 3. [Why] people who feel betrayed by either of those things should vote for us again”.

Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union /u/akc8, one of the few members in favour of the coalition, wrote in a statement separate from the main debate that “this has probably been one of the most amicable government chats I’ve ever been in” and that “honestly working with the Tory leadership within my department has been a dream compared to the experiences of the RSP and and the Greens that I have had in the past.”, before going on to list a number of reasons why Labour exiting the Coalition would be a bad proposal to them, particularly due to the difficulties of what happens after the coalition.

Feelings run high in the Labour Party on the subject of the Grand Coalition. Internal party debates alone would lead us to believe that the party is inevitably going to crash the Government in an ocean of fury, but in the event the vote ended as a tie. Clearly the silent half of the Labour Party still favours the Grand Coalition, and for now the Government stumbles onward.

The Times, through a number of sources, has verified the information written above. We have also obtained a series of screenshots of opinions of the coalition from Labour members. These screenshots have been independently verified by multiple members of the Labour party with regards to accuracy, and we print every screenshot we have. Indeed, we delayed this report by several hours to make sure that we had all the evidence available to publish, and that it was verified by no less than three different members of the Labour Party.