GORDON Brown’s plans to clean up MPs’ expenses were in disarray last night when he was forced to dump the much-ridiculed idea of a “clocking in” allowance of up to £174 a day.

The prime minister backed down after protests from the opposition parties and his own backbenchers left him facing almost certain defeat in a Commons vote he had called for Thursday.

MPs will still vote on less controversial changes - including greater transparency on MPs' outside earnings and tighter rules for staff employment - but the now-notorious £24,000 second-home allowance will survive for now.

Mr Brown’s plan to replace the allowance with a flat-rate daily payment for attending Westminster quickly ran into trouble when it emerged MPs could still claim roughly the same amount.

Also, many MPs were deeply unhappy about adopting the much-criticised system of the European Parliament - dubbed “sign on and bugger off” by Tory leader David Cameron.

To add to Mr Brown’s embarrassment, he personally launched his surprise clean-up campaign in a YouTube video, telling the public he had plan to win back their confidence.

Last night, the prime minister wrote to Sir Christopher Kelly, the head of the anti-sleaze watchdog, to urge him to put forward his own reform proposals “as soon as possible and preferably before the summer recess”.

Mr Brown is desperate to have a new system in place by July, when receipts for every MPs’ expenses claim, going back three years, will be published.

He has been warned his government will be engulfed by a wave of public anger when the full details of lavish second-home purchases are laid bare.

In his letter, Mr Brown urged Sir Christopher to focus on linking claims to “attendance at Westminster”, as well as on reducing the overall cost to the taxpayer.

But Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, accused the prime minister of behaving like a “sulking schoolboy” by refusing to listen to his, and Tory, plans to clean up second-home claims.

He said: “We'll have a list of fairly minor items to agree this week, whilst the real thing that has been the source of rightful public anger - namely, the very lackadaisical way in which MPs are given money for their second homes - will be left intact.”

Mr Cameron said: “I have no idea what the prime minister is going to do. It seems there is considerable confusion in Downing Street.”

But Sir Stuart Bell, the Middlesbrough MP, whose own proposed reforms were blocked in the Commons last year, said the prime minister had been “quite wise” to think again.

He added: “The public would be happier if there was some sort of independent recommendation. I hope that, between now and the end of the year, there will be proposals the Commons as a whole can reach consensus on.”

Thursday’s slimmed-down changes will still have important implications for two of the region’s MPs - Alan Milburn (Darlington) and William Hague (Richmond) - who have lucrative outside earnings.

They will be required to publish full details of how much they were paid and what hours they worked. Both pocket at least £200,000 a year, on top of thier parliamentary salary of £64,700.