Constitution: Backlash on fixed-term parliaments

Senior Tory backbenchers branded the measure – designed to seal the coalition pact with the Liberal Democrats – as "constitutionally incoherent" and a "recipe for anarchy".

Mr Cameron insisted yesterday that the proposals, which would see him surrender the traditional right of the Prime Minister to choose the timing of the election, actually represented a "big giving up of power".

However, Tory MPs opposed to the plan insisted they were "extremely hopeful" that ministers would be forced to rethink the whole idea.

The plan for five-year fixed-term Parliaments was a key plank of the coalition deal hammered out by the Tory and Liberal Democrat negotiating teams.

In order to reassure both sides that neither party could cut and run in order to force a fresh election when it suited them, it was agreed there should be a binding resolution of the House requiring the support of 55 per cent of the MPs if Parliament is to be dissolved early.

However, Tory MPs joined with Labour in condemning the proposal, warning that it undermined the principle that a Government could be forced out by a simple majority vote in the Commons.