More people support scrapping restrictions on Sunday opening hours than oppose it, according to a recent YouGov poll.

The survey suggested 48 per cent thought the government's plan to allow larger shops to extend opening hours on a Sunday was either a "very good idea" (25 per cent) or a "fairly good idea" (23 per cent). This compared to 33 per cent who thought it was a bad idea.

However the research also revealed that 48 per cent thought longer opening hours on a Sunday would be detrimental to family life. Only 27 per cent disagreed.

The existing legislation restricts large stores (those over 280 square metres) to six hours of trading on a Sunday. However this limit does not apply to smaller shops.

Earlier this week the government announced it would push through the changes in the autumn after the threat of rebellion forced them to abandon plans in November.

However Christian Conservative MP David Burrowes, who led the rebellion last year, said the plans were "unwanted" and "unworkable". He threatened to form an "unholy" alliance to defeat the government. He warned the changes would trigger a "domino effect" where if one council relaxed the laws, others would have to quickly follow.

Burrowes previously told Christian Today that the 20 Tory MPs who had threatened to rebel in November would still defy the government and more were joining their mounting opposition. Alongside Labour and SNP voters, this would be enough to defeat the government's slender majority.

Early suggestions Scottish MPs could be locked out of voting under new English votes for English laws legislation have been ruled out, Burrowes said.

"If one does the maths it doesn't work out for the government to win this. I would expect us to defeat the government," he told BBC Radio Four's World At One on Tuesday.

"It happened on a larger majority when Margaret Thatcher lost in the eighties and with a smaller majority I don't believe Cameron can win this one."

He promised rebel Tories "will enter into what we call an unholy cross-party alliance with the SNP, Labour and anyone else from any party who wants to join us and respects Sundays and recognises that we don't need to go down this route".

He added: "Really it's just the big West End shops in London that have been shouting loudest and we should listen to the people, to workers, who don't want to be indirectly or indeed directly pressurised to work and spend time away from their families."

The YouGov poll comes after both the Church of England and the Catholic Church in England and Wales published damning judgements on the government's plans which would allow local councils to decide whether larger stores could open for longer than current six hour limit.

The Bishop of St Albans, Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, said the government had "chosen to side with the interests of big business, over small retailers and communities" in a long-awaited response to a public consultation. They had made "no compelling case for improved economic or social benefits", he said.

Both the Church of England and the Catholic Church warned that despite extra protection for workers who did not want to work Sundays, employees who choose this will nevertheless be pressured into doing so.

"During recent years there has been a widely recognised decline in the amount of quality time that families share and the number of joint activities that they partake in," a statement from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales read.

"Continuing to erode the special nature of Sunday as a 'common day off' will inevitably make it harder to address this trend."