Alistair Darling on Tuesday tried to buy off Labour’s tax rebels with an offer to speed up help for some of the 5.3m poor people hit by the abolition of the 10p tax band.

The chancellor’s concession appeared to take some steam out of the rebellion. Frank Field, whose call for compensation to offset the tax change has become a focus for Labour discontent, admitted the number of Labour MPs prepared to vote down the government’s Budget legislation next Monday had fallen from 39 to 31.