Just 7,500 votes NATIONWIDE could cost Labour power, says former Home Secretary Charles Clarke

Former Cabinet minister Charles Clarke has issued a "doomsday list" of Labour MPs at risk of losing their seats.

With opinion polls showing Labour at a 20-year low, the former Home Secretary warns that the future of the party depends on fewer than 7,500 voters.

Boundary changes mean that Labour needs to lose only 24 seats to lose its overall majority in the House of Commons.

This will happen if just 7,417 voters in the 24 most marginal Labour seats who voted for the party at the last election vote next time for the party which came second.

The document, e-mailed to selected MPs, shows that many of the seats under threat are in Kent and Essex, where the Tories are the main challenger.

Labour won the 2005 election with an overall majority of 67.

But boundary changes, which are favourable to the Tories, mean Mr Brown will go into the next election with a majority of only 47.

The closeness of the results in many seats last time means it would take a swing of a mere 2 per cent to wipe out Labour's majority and create a hung parliament.

Several members of the Government are on the doomsday list.

They include universities minister Bill Rammell, schools minister Jim Knight, and Cabinet Office minister Phil Hope.

Gordon Brown's parliamentary private secretary Angela Smith is also at risk.

One MP who saw the dossier said: "It shows just how close we are to annihilation.

"If we lose our overall majority, it is unlikely the Lib Dems will keep us in power.

"Gordon Brown needs to connect with voters, particularly in these crucial seats in the South."

The dire projections come amid rumours of mounting disquiet on the back benches at the leadership of Gordon Brown.

It emerged yesterday that one of his closest aides who resigned last week had "lost respect" for the Prime Minister.

Spencer Livermore, No 10's director of political strategy, quit after becoming disillusioned with Mr Brown because he "bottled" the general election decision last autumn.

One rebel MP suggested at the weekend that Mr Brown should be asked to retire on "medical grounds" because of problems with his eyesight, while another described him as an "albatross in a tartan waistcoat".