Boris Johnson could force MPs to battle until 36 hours before the local elections to pass a chaotic backlog of controversial laws.
Fighting for survival over Partygate, the Prime Minister will fail to pass a third of around 30 Bills he pledged in last year’s Queen’s Speech.
They include hotly disputed laws on online safety, planning and free speech in universities - which will now only happen in the next parliamentary year.
Another six laws are still snarled up in battles with the Lords days before parliament prorogues - which would snuff them out.
They include hitting poorer and northern residents with greater care costs, banning noisy protests, and criminalising Channel dinghy refugees.
Parliament had been due to prorogue on Thursday but sources are braced for a late-night battle - or even to carry on after the Bank Holiday weekend.
A government spokeswoman confirmed to the Mirror: “Parliament could sit until next Tuesday to ensure all Government business is delivered.”
Lords whips even warned peers they could have to sit on Wednesday, the day before polls open at 7am on Thursday.
A source claimed some peers had been spotted cracking out booze as they fought through late-night sittings recently.
The Prime Minister had pencilled in a clear week before the May 5 elections - and a reboot his struggling premiership with the new Queen’s Speech on May 10.
Two weeks away would also have helped calm leadership plotters as MPs are not in Westminster.
But a Lords source said peers were still hitting a “brick wall” trying to persuade Tory ministers to compromise on the Nationality and Borders Bill and predicted it would “go to the wire”.
It has already been knocked back by the Lords three times.
Home Secretary Priti Patel was spotted in the House of Lords last night as the Government tries to ram through the controversial legislation before the end of the parliamentary session.
Peers were voting again tonight on blocking plans to criminalise refugees who arrive by boat, watering down the “offshoring” of asylum seekers and giving them the right to work after six months waiting for a Home Office decision.
Peers inflicted a fresh string of defeats on Mr Johnson tonight, by backing steps aimed at preventing asylum seekers being treated differently based on how they reached the UK.
The Lords also renewed their demand that applicants be allowed to work if no decision had been taken on their claim after six months and supported measures to force the bill to comply with the UK's international commitments to refugees.
But the government narrowly saw off a bid to impose strict conditions on offshoring asylum and to strip out a plan to make it a crime to knowingly arrive in the UK without permission.
A Labour source in the Lords said: "We’re clearly hitting a brick wall with the Home Secretary who appears overly focused on ramming this legislation through and ignoring carefully thought through advice from peers across the House about why aspects of this bill are unworkable."
The bill will now return to the Commons for consideration.
Peers also defeated “repugnant” plans under the Elections Bill to give the government more control over the election watchdog.
Naomi Smith, CEO of better democracy campaign group Best for Britain, said “Putting the Government in charge of the currently independent elections watchdog is like putting a fox in charge of the henhouse. It is a brazen attempt from this government to give themselves unfair advantage over opposition parties.”
The laws are two of six which were still in ‘ping pong’ earlier today, where the Commons and Lords wrestle back and forth over final disagreements.
The other four are the Police Bill, which criminalises noisy protests; the Health and Care Bill which forces poorer residents to pay more before reaching a £86,000 cap on care costs; the Building Safety Bill and the Judicial Review and Courts Bill.
Attempts to force the Government to cap the amount that leaseholders would pay for safety repairs at £250 were rejected last night.
The Government victory clears the way for the Building Safety Bill to conclude its passage through Parliament ahead of prorogation.
Peers were due to vote late into the night on the Health & Care Bill and Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts.
The PM’s official spokesman defended the situation, saying there were “unique challenges facing this parliamentary session, war in Europe being a good example.”
But a source told i News the delays were “insane”, adding: “Right now they’re just really worried about alienating any wing of the parliamentary party.”
Of just over 30 Bills promised in last year’s Queen’s Speech, it’s thought 11 have been passed, four more are due Royal Assent shortly and six are tied up in the Lords.
The Planning Bill was promised last year but never published, as plans to split towns into development zones were dropped due to Tory opposition.
And five of the failed laws - on online safety, free speech in universities, animal welfare, high speed rail, and telecommunications - did begin a process this year, but will be “carried over” after running out of time.
