The group includes the former Cabinet minister Esther McVey and Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, according to the Telegraph

And Mr Williams faced yet more opposition from Conservative colleagues last night, in the form of Education Select Committee Chairman Robert Halfon.

The former Minister of State for Skills revealed he had asked for an Urgent Question in the House of Commons in which he would demand to know the route-map for getting children back to school.