A loyal army?
A certain amount of backbench grumbling in the Tory ranks, as the whips prepare to unveil two new waves of .
PPSs are unpaid ministerial bag-carriers, link-persons between the government and the footsloggers in the parliamentary party. It is the first rung on the government ladder, an apprenticeship to power. Some of the real high flyers in the new intake may expect to skip over it, and straight into office at the first reshuffle, so the names which emerge are more likely to be utility midfielders than star strikers.
Between eight and 10 are expected to be announced soon - and a second wave will be named a little later. But the grumbling relates to the size of the "payroll vote", the MPs who are part of the government and are bound to vote for its every move, or resign.
There was much criticism during the last government that the growing number of official appointees, not just ministers but supernumery unpaid ministers, a growing legion of PPSs, envoys and czars, bound too many Labour parliamentarians to the government line. (This is one of the recurring themes in the excellent second volume of the former Labour MP Chris Mullin's backbench diaries.)
In this parliament there is an extra dimension to the irritation over the payroll vote. A number of backbenchers on all sides think that if the Commons is to be reduced in size by 50 MPs - about 8% - then the number of ministers, PPSs etc should shrink too. If not, the payroll vote will take up a bigger proportion of the House, with unhealthy consequences for parliamentary scrutiny.
Look out for amendments on that issue to the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill...
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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