Public sector pensions, ID Cards, radical reform of incapacity benefit, and the government's increasingly market-based reforms in education and health all provide potential flashpoints between ministers and Labour backbenchers now that the government has a reduced majority.

The potential for trouble, however, may be smaller than first appears. That is partly because for some of the most controversial measures, such as bringing private providers in to compete with NHS hospitals and many of the education reforms, no further legislation is needed.