Brighton and Hove has almost certainly missed its chance to hold a May referendum on the issue of elected mayors.

Last week, rebel Labour councillors sided with the opposition to reject plans for a referendum on May 3, the likely date of a General Election.

It left the plans in limbo, and councillors were told the issue would come up again at the budget meeting on March 1.

But initial soundings have now revealed that few if any of the Labour councillors who voted against, abstained or did not turn up to last week's meeting are likely to change their minds.

If so, the council has lost its last chance to hold a May referendum and possibly become one of the first councils in the country with a directly-elected mayor.

The ruling Labour group is also unlikely to take tough disciplinary action against the rebels because there are too many of them.

Suspending them would leave Labour short of an overall majority.

There is also disquiet among many Labour councillors with the ruling elite, in particular with council leader Lynette Gwyn-Jones.

But a vote of no confidence, being canvassed by some councillors, is unlikely to be tabled for the sake of unity.

There have been two other leadership defeats in the last year, one on the issue of how the council should be run and the other on calls for an inquiry into the child abuse case in which three local youngsters died.

Cabinet councillor Ken Bodfish called for a calming-down period to see if consensus could be reached on the mayor, saying: "You can't force a referendum on the council or the community."

He said the present system of leader and Cabinet was still not working to everyone's satisfaction and there was understandable suspicion about introducing another system quickly after that.

Rebel Labour councillor Pat Murphy, who voted against the May referendum, said he was not necessarily against one in principle.

He said: "It would be wrong to hold one on General Election day when other issues such as the economy will be in everyone's minds.

"The elected mayor referendum should be, at the earliest, in October and we would then see how many people were interested. After all, only 3,000 have responded so far."