Workers should not be left on zero-hours contracts and face ever greater job insecurity, a Labour MP told the Commons today.

Gateshead MP Ian Mearns moved the Zero Hour Contracts Bill which would limit the situations in which such a contract, which offers no minimum hours to an employee, could be used.

Debate on the Private Member's Bill did not finish before the end of the day's business and it is not likely to receive further debate.

Proposing the Bill, Mr Mearns said: "Increasingly, people are finding themselves plagued by job insecurity, not knowing from one day to the next whether they will be working or earning.

"In recent years, the rising numbers of those feeling insecure at work has been startling - in 2011, 6.5 million people surveyed said they felt insecure. By this year that number had almost doubled to 12 million.

"What we have witnessed is not so much an economic recovery but an economic transformation - almost daily the Government boasts about job creation in the private sector, but the truth is the jobs lost due to the global economic crash and the Government cuts have been largely replaced by low-skilled, low-wage and, sadly, insecure jobs.

"Nowhere is this clearer than in the explosion in the use of zero-hours contracts.

"As recently as last year, the coalition were claiming just over 200,000 people were employed on zero-hours contracts.

"The true figure, as revealed by the Office for National Statistics, was in fact seven times higher than Government ministers admitted, a staggering 1.4 million people.

"If they are used at all, they are supposed to be used for short-term or seasonal work, occupying a niche in the labour market.

"But the reality is zero-hours contracts have become the norm across many sectors."

Tory MP Philip Davies (Shipley) spoke against the Bill.

He said: " I have to say, really, it's a bit rich for the Labour Party to come here en-masse to pretend they are massively opposed to zero-hour contracts when one of the worst offenders for handing out zero-hour contracts - if one believes what one reads in the press ... it appears some of the worst offenders are not only Labour councils but also Labour MPs."

Mr Davies faced interventions challenging him to reveal names and denials from Labour MPs.

He added: "It's not just any old Labour council which employs people on zero-hours contracts ... Doncaster Council is one of the worst offenders.

"In Doncaster, they have the honour, privilege or misfortune ... not just having the leader of the Opposition as one of their local MPs, but they actually have three shadow cabinet members.

"Would you not think if the abolition of zero-hours contracts were so important for the Labour Party, you would think the leader of the Labour Party, the leader of the Opposition, might just have enough clout with a Labour-elected mayor and a majority Labour council in Doncaster to encourage them to get rid of zero-hours contracts.

"Either the Labour Party have no intention of getting rid of zero-hours contracts and don't really care about them or the leader of the Opposition has so little clout within his party ... he can't even persuade a Labour council and elected Labour mayor to do anything."

Mr Davies talked the Bill out of time and debate was adjourned until next Friday, when the Bill will be at the bottom of the list.