WHEN the House of Commons resume tomorrow, there will be a sizeable chunk of empty space on the green benches.

And it’s not the just the SNP and Scottish LibDems who’ll be keeping away – backbenchers from all parties are livid at the government’s attempt to return to normality.

MPs will vote (virtually) tomorrow on bringing back physical voting later this week.

It’s likely the measures will pass, which will ultimately mean many MPs having to effectively break the law by travelling to parliament and staying overnight in a second home.

Over the weekend, the SNP’s Owen Thompson said scrapping remote voting could even be in breach of the Treaty of Union.

He told the Sunday National: “The rush to cut off the hybrid parliament is cutting off participation for Scottish MPs who cannot safely travel to speak and vote in the limited space of the chamber.

“I believe this stands in breach of the Treaty of the Union which requires adequate representation for Scotland, and I urge the UK Government to think again.”

On Friday evening, the all-party House of Commons procedure committee recommended that virtual voting remains.

They said it would protect the ability of MPs who are self-isolating, shielding, or otherwise vulnerable to represent constituents.

The Tory chair of the committee, Karen Bradley, said members would effectively be “disenfranchised” if the hybrid system was abandoned.

Under the Rees-Mogg plan, MPs would have to queue around the palace of Westminster to vote, rather than squeeze into the cramped lobbies on either side of the chamber.

Former shadow leader of the house Chris Bryant said the queues “would be like Alton Towers”.

Veteran Labour MP and former minister Margaret Hodge told the Observer she had been told by lawyers that the government would be breaking several laws passed by parliament if it denied MPs the right to vote.

“I regard myself as fairly fit but even so I feel absolutely furious that MPs who cannot go to parliament are being discriminated against and denied the right to vote on behalf of our constituents in parliament.

“The informal legal advice I have had suggests that acting in this way would break three different types of legislation regarding healthy and safety, equalities and human rights. It beggars belief that we think we can be above the laws we make.”

Former Labour foreign secretary Margaret Beckett, 77 said she believed the “hybrid” had worked well.

“I thought the guidance was that if you could work from home you should do so. I think what they are doing is a very high-risk strategy,” she said.

The SNP’s Tommy Sheppard said the Tories were “forcing MPs from across the UK to travel hundreds of miles to Westminster” because “the Prime Minister isn’t very good at his job and wants to be surrounded by braying backbench Tory MPs”.

The party’s shadow leader of the house added that if the plans were not reversed, the SNP will “balance protecting public health and Scotland’s democratic voice by sending the minimum number of MPs required to hold the UK Government to account”.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has limited the number of people who are allowed in the chamber to a maximum of 50.

He told The Times: “I still believe that we ought to be looking at

hybrid for those people who are shielding, those people with an

age profile.

“And there may be MPs who are really struggling because they have nobody to look after their children. Other businesses would try to accommodate that.

“The fact is I’m very, very worried about somebody coming in who may be infected and before we know it, that has been passed round.”