This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

David Cameron tonight defused a escalating row with his party when he abandoned plans to allow ministers to vote in elections to the executive of the Tory backbench 1922 committee.

Amid warnings that a rival "2010 committee" would be established to challenge the leadership, Tory sources announced a compromise.

Ministers will be allowed to attend meetings of the 1922 but they will not be allowed to vote in elections to the committee's executive.

Cameron has faced intense criticism in recent days after he announced at a meeting of the Conservative parliamentary party last week that a short and immediate ballot would be held to allow ministers to become full members of the 1922.

He won the vote, but 118 MPs from the 305-strong Tory parliamentary party rebelled.

The move by the leadership provoked a furious backlash from backbenchers who likened Cameron's move to the behaviour of the North Korean dictatorship.

Patrick McLoughlin, the Tory chief whip, told backbenchers tonight that Cameron had relented and would maintain the bar on ministers taking part in votes to the executive of the 1922 committee.

This is likely to increase the chances of Graham Brady, the former shadow Europe minister, who is standing this week for the chairmanship of the 1922 as a critical friend of the leadership.

A Tory source said: "This is a compromise everyone is happy with. The 1922 committee will operate as a whole but not when there are these important symbolic votes. David Cameron is not insensitive to backbench opinion. This is a half way house."

Critics tonight welcomed the change. Peter Bone, the MP for Wellingborough who had accused Cameron of bouncing the party last week, said: "This is absolutely terrific. It shows real leadership from the prime minister who will now listen to reasonable arguments and, if necessary, change position.

"That shows real courage and self confidence by the prime minister who said: 'I've listened to those arguments, that's not a bad idea. I'll change my original thought.' That's really good for the country. Contrast that with Gordon Brown who, with the clunking fist, would carry on despite whatever argument was made."

Nominations for the chairmanship of the 1922 close at noon today. Brady, who is something of a Tory folk hero after he resigned from the frontbench at the height of the row over grammar schools in 2007, will face a challenge from the loyalist Richard Ottaway. He would have been a beneficiary from the planned changes.

The proposed change by Cameron was seen as a rare slip in his usually deft handling of the Tory parliamentary party.

One senior rightwinger said last week: "Cameron should bear in mind Shakespeare: 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.' This is storing up trouble. There is real hatred towards the leadership."

Cameron, who remembers how the 1922 committee was a source of grief for John Major when he had a wafer thin majority in the early to mid 1990s, told MPs last week that he wanted to end the "them and us" culture.