The Government has defeated a backbench rebellion over the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

Former minister Frank Field, who led the revolt, warned ministers they needed to offer more than just "warm words" or face a huge rebellion on their own benches.

He said abolition of the 10p band was a "denial of all that we have come into public life about, and this is our last chance before the General Election to rectify it".

But Treasury Financial Secretary Stephen Timms warned the move would plunge the Government's finances into "chaos" by preventing them from collecting income tax this year and having to repay that already collected.

The rebel move was defeated by 311 votes to 268 - a Government majority of 43.

With 30 Labour backbenchers backing the amendment to the Budget-enacting Finance Bill, together with the Tories and Liberal Democrats, the Government had been thought to be facing the prospect of a humiliating defeat.

In report stage debate on the Bill, Mr Field said of Labour MPs: "The golden thread that knits us all together is that we came into this place not only to protect but to advance the interests of those who get the least from life.

"The 10p is a denial of all that we have come into public life about, and this is our last chance before the general election to rectify it."

The 10p rate of income tax was abolished in Gordon Brown's last Budget as Chancellor in 2007, when the standard rate was cut from 22p to 20p.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has since raised personal allowances twice, in response to backbench pressure, to help those who lost out as a result of the original changes.

Tory spokesman Mark Hoban described the abolition of the 10p tax rate as a "tax rise for the many and not for the few".

Liberal Democrat Jeremy Browne said Labour had essentially betrayed its core voters by trying to move further to the right of the Tories.

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.