THE Government is ready to shelve the elected assembly referendum in Yorkshire while pressing ahead with the vote in the North-East, it emerged yesterday.

Nick Raynsford, the local government minister, surprised MPs by suggesting the Electoral Commission could advise pressing head with a controversial all-postal ballot in one region, but not another.

The referendum in the region judged to be "unsafe" would then be postponed, almost certainly until after the next General Election, pencilled in for June.

In his Commons speech, Mr Raynsford made clear the North-East had a long and successful history of all-postal voting.

Describing the North-East's experience of postal experiments as "overwhelmingly positive", the minister said: "That's obviously a factor to take into account".

Significantly, he made no mention of successful postal voting in either Yorkshire and The Humber or the North-West, the third region due to stage a referendum on November 4.

The Government is under pressure to find a way out of holding ballots in Yorkshire and the North West, where polling suggests the Yes camp is heading for defeat.

Until yesterday, ministers had suggested the commission's looming report into all-postal voting in last month's local elections would decide whether all three polls - or none - would go ahead.

But, during a debate on the referendum orders, Mr Raynsford suggested the Commission might decide an all-postal ballot was unsafe in just one, or two, regions.

He said: "It would then be appropriate to proceed in one region on the basis already proposed while deferring, or adopting a different approach, in another one."

Last night, MPs approved the referendum orders, sending them to the House of Lords which is expected to approve them early today.

That would leave time for a draft Bill, setting out the proposed powers of the assemblies, to be published before MPs leave for the summer break tonight.