Labour's fragility was exposed by the council election results yesterday, as its unspectacular showing prompted a bout of internal criticism.

There are few votes in council election speeches pointing out that socioeconomic factors, such as the growth of single-person households, require that homes are built.

Under his plans, a petition signed by 10% of the local electorate would lead to a referendum, held on the day of the next council election.

Some peers are also known to want nationwide council election results to feed into the formula.

However, they also pointed out that in the past 30 years no party in opposition had lost even one seat in a council election apart from a general election year.