Ministers warn Brown 'voters have reached their limit on stealth taxes' (as it's revealed bin charges U-turn will add £100 to council tax)

Anger over new vehicle taxes, rises in council tax and fuel duty, and the scrapping of the 10p tax band were a major factor in last week's defeats for Labour, they said.

The MPs' warnings come as it emerged that the Prime Minister's promise to abandon pay-as-you-throw bin charges could add £100 or more to the council tax.

Meanwhile, former welfare minister Frank Field was today poised to revive his damaging rebellion over the 10p tax band abolition.

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The comments came during an inquest into the defeat of Ken Livingstone by Boris Johnson and Labour's worst town hall drubbing in 40 years was being held during a political session of Cabinet.

Mr Brown was aiming to seize back the initiative and unveil a blizzard of new ideas before the Crewe and Nantwich by-election on 22 May - which is looking risky in the wake of last week's election result.

But some ministers were using the event to press for a moratorium on new taxes.

"People have already reached their limit on what they are prepared to take in terms of taxation, whether it's the congestion charge or bin taxes," a senior minister said.

The public could be facing an increase in council tax of at least £100 if Mr Brown goes ahead with a U-turn on the trial of his pay-as-you-throw rubbish scheme, town hall chiefs warned.

They said that bills may be padded with "rubbish premiums" if councils are banned from raising rubbish taxes to cover the growing cost of burying waste in landfill sites.

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Powers to let councils charge families for putting out too much rubbish are in the Climate Change Bill, which is going through Parliament.

Trials are due to start next year in five unnamed areas.

Those who do not recycle enough will face bills of at least £50 a year.

But on Sunday, following disastrous local elections, No10 suggested the rubbish taxes would be axed once the pilot projects were over.

One source said: "People made it clear on the doorstep that they don't like a punitive rubbish tax, so it's natural for us to jettison the idea."

But by 2012, Mr Brown's landfill tax escalator, which makes councils pay the Treasury for the waste they bury, will have risen to £60 a tonne and EU fines for exceeding landfill targets will have hit £100 a tonne.

Paul Bettison, of the Local Government Association, said: "The only thing that councils can do is increase the council tax.

"It may be the case that council tax is capped. If that happens, there will be difficult decisions about services.

"Mr Brown is going to have to be prepared for old people seeing day centres closed, for swimming pools shut down, and for roads full of holes."

The fears over the council tax - which has already doubled in a decade - came as senior ministers appeared to be falling out with Mr Brown over dumping pay-as-you-throw taxes.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday suggested Downing Street's comments had been premature.

It said: "We will evaluate the impact of those pilots before making a final decision."

Critics said the Prime Minister promised twice last year to ditch bin taxes, once in April before local government elections and again in October before Defra went ahead with them.

Tory local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: "We should take Downing Street briefings with a pinch of salt. Unless ministers openly pledge to dump the bin tax laws, the public should not trust a word Labour say.

"It's time to end the bin bully culture that is making it impossible for families to dispose of their household rubbish responsibly."