Margaret Ferrier, Scottish nationalist MPs and Boris Johnson supporters have been accused of organising a "grubby backroom deal" to prevent Ferrier from being suspended from the House of Commons and facing a by-election.
Labour shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray claimed that Ferrier worked with other MPs to prevent a recall petition from being sparked.
The Commons was expected to decide on the standards committee's recommendation that Ferrier receive a 30-day ban from the House of Commons on Thursday afternoon.
If the recommendations had passed, Ferrier would have faced a recall petition and a potential by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
But the Government surprisingly pulled the motion.
Murray said this was because Johnson supporters were planning to oppose it because they do not want the former Prime Minister to "suffer the same fate" over his privileges committee investigation.
The privileges committee could recommend that Johnson is suspended from the Commons for intentionally or recklessly misleading parliament. MPs who are suspended for more than 10 days can face a recall petition if the Commons passes the recommendations.
Murray said: “That the motion against Margaret Ferrier was pulled today is a deeply disappointing development for the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West and shows total and utter Tory Government incompetence.
“A grubby backroom deal between Ferrier, nationalists and some Tories who don’t want Boris Johnson to suffer the same fate has prevented the democratic process from taking place. The government can’t even get their own business through.
“This is an unholy alliance and total incompetence designed to defer democracy and give the Tories and the SNP a stay of execution at the ballot box while Ferrier draws a salary from the taxpayer.
“Change is coming to Scotland whether the SNP or the Tories like it, and Scottish Labour will deliver it.”
A Government source had said that the motion was pulled because there were not enough MPs in the chamber.
But a Labour source said the Government were worried Johnson supporters were "hiding" and were ready to oppose Ferrier's recommended suspension.
The source said: "The Government should always be able to get their business through and we told them we have between 30 and 40 MPs on site, but they were too nervous about their own side."
Key Johnson ally Jacob Rees-Mogg was in the chamber when the motion on Ferrier was supposed to go ahead.
The decision will now be delayed for more than a week as the Commons is in recess from Friday.
Ferrier lost the SNP whip and received a criminal conviction after travelling from London to Glasgow by train while infected with Covid at the height of the pandemic.
The standards committee recommended she get a 30-day suspension at the end of March. The Conservative MPs on the committee and SNP MP Allan Dorans voted for a nine-day suspension, which would mean she would not face a recall petition.
Ferrier appealed against the recommendation but lost her appeal earlier this week.
The SNP and Ferrier were contacted for comment.
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