Ministers reject PM challenge calls

Moves to force the Prime Minister from office gathered pace, however, as more Labour MPs criticised his performance and demanded he face a leadership contest this autumn. But another group of senior backbenchers said they were "incensed" by the attempt to force him out, and Mr Brown's most senior allies refused to wield the knife.

Business Secretary John Hutton said he did not dismiss the rebels' concerns, but refused to join their calls for a change of leader. "I'm not gong to criticise any of my colleagues who want Labour to do better and neither am I going to criticise those who say, for example, that we do need to set out a stronger vision of what we are doing," he told the BBC.

"It is a difficult political climate for us. There is no question at all about that. So I think my colleagues are right to say that the Government need to do better. For heaven's sake, we are 20 percentage points behind in the opinion polls."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is seen as a potential successor to Mr Brown, said he also did not agree with calls for a leadership election. But he added: "I think there's a recognition from the top of the party down, from Gordon down, that these are very, very challenging times for the Labour Party."

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn and Chief Whip Geoff Hoon also hit the television and radio studios to argue against a leadership bid. Their comments will disappoint the rebels, who need the support of senior members of the Government to force matters to a head.

The crisis engulfing the premier, which comes ahead of Labour's annual conference next weekend, escalated on Saturday with the sacking of a second Labour figure in as many days.

Joan Ryan was dismissed as Labour's vice chairman and Mr Brown's envoy to Cyprus for calling for a leadership election. On Friday, assistant whip Siobhain McDonagh lost her job after making the same demand.

On Sunday former minister Fiona Mactaggart became one of the latest MPs to publicly call for a change of leadership. "I think we should give a chance to someone else to take over - I really do," she said in an interview with BBC1's Politics Show.

And Barry Gardiner, a special envoy on forestry for the Prime Minister, announced he had requested leadership nomination papers be sent out to all Labour MPs. In an article for The Sunday Times, he said: "The public has stopped listening to Gordon Brown. He is not a popular prime minister, but he would continue to have my support if he showed sound judgment, international leadership and political vision. Instead we have vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand."