OPPONENTS of fracking claimed victory after the Government agreed tough new protections to head off a major revolt by Tory MPs.

Ministers sprang a surprise by caving in to Labour demands for 13 new environmental safeguards, including site-by-site monitoring and disclosure of emissions after drilling for shale gas.

They also conceded a total ban in National Parks – including the North Yorkshire Moors, where gas reserves lie and where fracking would have been allowed “in exceptional circumstances”.

Caroline Flint MP, Labour’s energy spokeswoman, said: “This is a huge U-turn by the Government and big victory for the protection of Britain’s environment.

“Labour has always said that shale gas extraction cannot go ahead unless there is a system of robust regulation and comprehensive inspection, but David Cameron has repeatedly ignored legitimate environmental concerns.”

The last-gasp concessions by the Government were widely seen as a huge blow to David Cameron’s pledge to go “all out” for shale gas.

Ministers had hoped the first wells would be dug this year, confident that opposition to fracking will fall away when they are up and running.

However, the Government played down the extent of the setback, arguing most of the new safeguards are already “carried out voluntarily by industry”.

A spokeswoman said: “We have agreed to accept this amendment, to provide clear reassurance in law, and to give this nascent industry has the best possible chance of success.”

Among the areas earmarked for fracking are parts of North Yorkshire, where up to a dozen licences for possible drilling have already been issued to gas companies.

Anne McIntosh, the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, has raised the alarm over Third Energy’s application to frack near Kirby Misperton, near Pickering – outside the National Park.

She warned ministers that one insurance company was refusing to offer public liability cover on any land where fracking will take place.

The Government is thought to have given way because of a threatened huge revolt by its own nervous backbenchers, just 14 weeks before the May general election.

The new safeguards will prevent ‘hydraulic fracturing’:

* Unless independent inspections are carried out of the integrity of wells

* Unless monitoring has been undertaken on the site over the previous 12-month period.

* Within “the boundary of a groundwater source protection zone”.

* Unless planning authorities have considered the “cumulative impact in the local area”.

However, Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, said the protections did not go far enough and did not amount to a temporary ban, telling MPs; “That’s what people are asking for.”

Ms Lucas was among 52 MPs who backed an outright moratorium, but that vote was lost by a huge majority of 256.

The setback for fracking came after the Commons environmental audit committee, described it as “incompatible with our climate change targets”.