Panicking Rishi Sunak has beaten a retreat on planning to avoid a humiliating revolt by his own MPs.
The PM faced his first major rebellion as dozens of Tories demanded an end to mandatory housebuilding targets.
MPs were due to vote on Monday on an amendment to the flagship Levelling Up bill that would ban councils from taking targets into account when deciding on planning applications.
But the government tonight announced it had pulled the vote after 47 Conservatives signed the amendment, put forward by former environment secretary Theresa Villiers.
High-profile signatories included ex-Cabinet ministers Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Damian Green and Dame Maria Miller.
A government source said: "We will continue to engage constructively with colleagues over the next few weeks to ensure we build more of the right homes in the right places.”
A senior Tory MP today warned the party’s backbenchers are getting more jittery about issues such as planning as they fear losing their seats at the next election.
"Anyone with a 6,000 majority is gone - it could be higher, it could be 8,000 or it could be 10,000," they claimed.
"It will be worse in the North East than in the Midlands. These are the Red Wall voters who trusted us and we f***ed up, essentially."
