The smell of another U-turn is in the air. The Government is weak after its battering in Crewe and at the local elections. John Hutton, the Business Secretary, gave the clearest hint this morning that ministers are "listening" - everyone's favourite word at the moment - to the concerns of backbenchers and the public over rises in vehicle excise duty next year on gas-guzzling cars.

While the tax will not be retrospective, people with large older cars - likely to be among the less well off - rightly claim that they are being punished from April 1 next year for vehicles they bought before they knew that this new impost - some £200 - was on the way.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is to meet Labour MPs concerned about the move. Having given way over the 10p tax rate abolition, Mr Darling is under pressure to give way again, and it would be a brave minister who thought that in the present climate he could push it through against the wishes of a sizeable number of MPs.

On the issue of road tax Gordon Brown has at least got the luxury of time. The increases are not due to come into force until next year. Mr Darling will probably promise to look at the issue and then make changes over time.

Similarly, there are daily promises that the Government is "listening" to complaints about the 2p a litre fuel duty increase due to come into effect in the autumn. Few now expect that tax increase to happen.

What ministers are seeing more and more is backbenchers, worried about their own prospects of survival at a future general election, being less and less fearful of speaking out. Crewe was about 150th in the Tory seat target list and yet Labour lost the by-election by a wide margin. The price of fuel and food is the issue worrying backbenchers more than any other. On the doorsteps of Crewe it was the subject most raised with campaigners, along with criticism of Mr Brown himself.

Whether the promises to listen will be enough to defuse the kind of protests on fuel prices that London and Wales were seeing today must be doubtful. Mr Brown badly needs outside help to persuade Opec to produce more oil to bring down the price of fuel. Last week crude reached $135 a barrel, with resulting increases in petrol and diesel sold in Britain.

What is clear is that the price of food and fuel has now supplanted the 10p tax as the Government's biggest worry. Will this be the issue that again puts the spotlight on Mr Brown's future, heavily questioned in the immediate aftermath of Crewe? Possibly.

Party managers have an even more immediate concern - Mr Brown's plan to increase to 42 days the time terrorist suspects can be held without charge. That is due to come before the Commons the week after next, and when MPs return to Westmisnter next week a massive persuasion exercise will be launched to warn those on the Labour side of the danger of defeating Mr Brown.

The last thing Labour MPs want at the moment is an election, which they fear they will lose badly. Those wanting to replace Mr Brown are coming increasingly to realise that that could open the door to an election. Mr Brown had the chance to call an early election after he became Prime Minister last summer, but chose not to. There would be immense pressure on anyone taking over from him to go to the country and seek a mandate. A sobering thought if you are one of those 150 MPs more likely to fall than Crewe.

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