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The pounds 1.6bn sale of armed forces homes was saved by the Government yesterday with an unprecedented turnout of backwoods peers in the House of Lords. A move to postpone the sale of 58,000 homes - which would then be leased back to the Ministry of Defence - was defeated by 256 votes to 176, a majority of 80. If rebel Tory Baroness Park's amendment had been carried, it would have blown a new hole in the Government's finances and threatened the possibility of tax cuts in the Budget this November.

Lady Park, 74, a former MI6 spy in Moscow and Vietnam, said: "It is like selling the family silver for a cheque just large enough to pay for some plastic kitchenware." But Lord Strathclyde, government chief whip, issued a three-line whip - a rare event in the Upper House. "It happens once a year, if that," one source said. John Rentoul