By James Cusick
Westminster Editor

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, is this weekend considering abandoning controversial moves to detain terror suspects for 42 days, rather than risking defeat in the Commons.

After Labour's disastrous showing in last month's local elections in England and Wales, Labour's chief whip, Geoff Hoon, and the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, were dispatched to broker a compromise deal with the party's potential 50-strong band of rebels. With only limited progress said to have been made by Hoon and Smith, a close vote on 42 days is now being seen by Number 10 as too much of a risk in the wake of last week's devastating by-election loss in Crewe and Nantwich.

Scheduled for June 11, just nine days after parliament returns from its Whitsun recess on June 2, Hoon's office has told Downing Street it cannot guarantee a victory.

A pragmatic U-turn away from a measure that has remained controversial since Brown announced it last year in the first months of his premiership, could persuade some that post-Crewe Brown can make a new start.

Pressure on Brown was growing over the weekend.

The Labour peer and leading economist, Lord Desia, said that the prime minister had to change , improve or go. "For the sake of the party that you love, move over," he said.

A millionaire Labour donor who helped bankroll Brown's uncontested leadership campaign said that the prime minister needed to be "much tougher".

Lord Paul said he was "depressed" at Labour's present woes, warned there was little time to get things back on track, and called for a Cabinet reshuffle.