The home secretary, Charles Clarke, was last night forced to fight every inch of the way to persuade a sceptical Commons to accept his compromise clauses on the prevention of terrorism bill and reject changes inflicted this week by the Lords.

During an impassioned three-hour debate before votes testing whether Mr Clarke's concessions had won back some of the 62 Labour backbenchers who rebelled last week over control orders, the home secretary was repeatedly challenged on details by angry MPs on all sides.