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The full Beecroft report on employment law reform will be published this afternoon, Business Minister Mark Prisk revealed to MPs.

Answering an urgent question on the report in the place of Business Secretary Vince Cable, Mr Prisk said a copy of the report that had been leaked to the Daily Telegraph was "an earlier draft of the report".

Mr Cable this morning vowed to fight Conservative attempts to implement the recommendation.

Writing in the Sun, Dr Cable said it is "complete nonsense" to imagine that stripping labour rights would boost hiring, adding: “I am opposed to the ideological zealots who want firms to fire at will.”

An ally of Mr Cable, former Liberal Democrat House of Lords Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott told the World at One that the proposals in the Beecroft report for no-fault dismissals would not go through into legislation. He said: "All Liberal Democrats are against a sack-on-the-spot mentality and it just won't happen."

He called the proposal "bonkers" and said that leaving people frightened about their job security was the "economics of the madhouse".

The question in the Commons had been tabled by Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna, who argued that "watering down people's rights at work is no substitute for a proper growth strategy." He added that the current economic crisis was nothing to do with employment law, and argued that altering the law would have "a huge negative impact on consumer confidence. They've run out of excuses for getting this country into a double-dip recession."