Sir Keir Starmer has been left bracing for a huge backbench rebellion over his plan to cut Britain's ballooning benefits bill by £5billion.
Almost 100 Labour MPs are believed to have signed an amendment demanding further consultation on Starmer's welfare proposals.
The amendment, which has been led by Treasury Select Committee chair Meg Hillier, has also been signed by ex-Government Whip Vicky Foxcroft.
Foxcroft heaped pressure on No10 last week by resigning from her frontbench role.
Rebels have claimed that the amendment, which will be published on Tuesday, does not intend to wreck Labour's welfare bill.
“We all want the Labour Government to succeed in getting people back into work and supporting those who can’t," Hillier told The Guardian.
"We don’t want to defeat the Government but we want the Government to think again.
“We are being asked to vote before consultation with disabled people and before impact assessments.”
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However, No10 believes that watering-down Work & Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall's welfare plans risks leaving Chancellor Rachel Reeves facing a multi-billion-pound black hole.
The amendment could force Starmer to receive analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
It could also adds that most of the additional employment support funding will not be in place until the end of the decade.
Whitehall's own impact assessment estimates that 250,000 people will be pushed into poverty as a result of the provisions, including 50,000 children.
Labour's Lewisham North MP Vicky FoxcroftPAHowever, rebels will need to see if Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle selects the amendment.
The amendment comes shortly after Labour MPs met with Kendall.
Kendall told the private meeting that there was “no route to social justice based on greater benefit spending alone”.
However, a number of frontbench MPs could also pile pressure on the Prime Minister ahead of the welfare bill appearing in the House of Commons.
Liz Kendall will face Labour MPs in a behind-closed-doors meetingPAThe proposed legislation, which was introduced into Parliament last Wednesday, includes a tightening of the criteria for the Personal Independence Payment (Pip).
Ministers also want to cut the sickness related element of Universal Credit and introduce measures to ensure that claimants must be at least 22-years-old.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner refused to rule out Labour rebels being stripped of the whip if they mount a revolt.
Responding to a question from SNP MP Pete Wishart about whether the Prime Minister intended to strip the whip from Labour rebels, Rayner said: “We’re absolutely committed to ending child poverty.
Keir StarmerPA"We’ve already introduced free school meals. We’re already supporting families.
"We’ve given a living wage rise to over millions of workers that need it. We’re getting on the job."
Starmer responded with fury last year when seven Labour MPs revolted to support an SNP amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
All seven MPs were stripped of the Labour Party whip, with ex-Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Poplar & Limehouse's Apsana Begum and Coventry South's Zarah Sultana still awaiting their return to the parliamentary Labour Party.
Ahead of Foxcroft’s resignation, ex-deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman suggested No10 was keeping an eye on jittery frontbench MPs.
She told Sky News: "There is people on a watch list at the moment, but not Cabinet ministers."
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