'If you won't stop Gordon I will' urges Reid

The Home Secretary is the latest leading supporter of Tony Blair to urge the reluctant Environment Secretary to stand.

If Mr Miliband refuses, Mr Reid will step up as a "last resort", according to reports.

Westminster sources say he has made his position clear in the last few days through a series of off-the-record briefings and comments attributed to "friends".

Allies of Mr Brown have hit back by accusing Mr Reid of "self-indulgent, divisive nonsense" at a time when the party should be united.

Mr Brown insists he would welcome a challenge but has put his own leadership campaign on ice in the run-up to crucial local elections next month.

"There's great irritation at the timing of this, when everybody should be expending their energy on the election campaign," said one source close to the Chancellor.

Mr Miliband, 41, has always said publicly that he has no plans to challenge the Chancellor, but has stopped short of ruling it out.

Mr Reid's comments will be scrutinisedby the Prime Minister's diehard-supporters, who still hope to provoke a Blairite challenge because they fear Mr Brown will "wreck" New Labour's achievements.

Mr Reid allowed himself to be talked up as a potential challenger for the Labour leadership last summer.

But a series of embarrassments at the Home Office were widely believed to have put paid to his chances.

Yesterday there were claims that ministers close to Mr Blair believe the next leader should be English, not Scottish.

EU commissioner Peter Mandelson, former Home Secretary Charles Clarke and former social security minister Frank Field are the most senior Labour figures to publicly urge Mr Miliband to enter the fray.

Mr Brown's allies concede that Mr Miliband would have no difficulty in obtaining the signatures of the 44 MPs necessary to stand, and they expect Mr Reid or even Mr Clarke could do the same.

Party sources say there are around 30 Labour MPs who are firmly "anti-Gordon", and others could be persuaded to sign up to a Blairite ticket by promises that particular issues would be addressed in a campaign.

Mr Reid had been widely tipped to stay at his job at the Home Office in a Brown Cabinet, but his latest intervention appears to make that impossible.

Some MPs who back the Chancellor-are now urging him to cast Mr Reid "into darkness" by sending him to the backbenches if he continues to create trouble.

An ally of the Chancellor said: "Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are working flat out to win every Labour vote they can in the local elections. We will not be distracted by this self-indulgent, divisive nonsense."

A spokesman for Mr Reid said: "John Reid's position has not changed. Everyone knows he has always said he will make his decision and announce it when the Prime Minister has stood down.

"Until then, he will continue to do his job as Home Secretary, which is a 24/7 role."