Up until a few months ago the sight of a couple of Conservative MPs laughing and enjoying a drink on the House of Commons terrace wouldn’t have been worth passing comment on.

Yet things have felt a bit different around Parliament since the election, for obvious reasons, so the sight of a group of cheerful Tories was enough to make me take a second look this week.

Bounding over for a chat, the pair, who have been in Parliament for years, gleefully recounted watching Keir Starmer’s first big rebellion in the Commons over the decision to remove winter fuel allowance from pensioners.

“It’s just dawning on them they’ve got years of this, years of having to suck up difficult decisions,” one quipped as the other smiled, knowingly.

Because it turns out that once the dust has settled and the bruised egos begin to heal, opposing and needling can actually be more fun and a lot more useful than sitting on your hands even when you feel deeply frustrated about it.

The clutch of Tory MPs who survived the near wipeout at the last general election find themselves on the green benches relatively unencumbered by policy positions for the first time.

After years of different leaders,........

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