Telephone campaign to mount mass challenge
By James Cusick, Westminster Editor

The sacked government whip, Siobhain McDonagh spent a large part of last week telephoning junior ministers and Labour MPs urging them to join a mass challenge against the prime minister.

It blows apart her claim that she would have avoided calling for a leadership challenge if she could have found a "quieter or an easier way", insisting she she was only acting as an individual MP struggling with her conscience.

In another development, Labour rebel Fiona Mactaggart became the latest former minister publicly to call for a change of leadership.

The discovery that McDonagh's mini-coup was supposed to be far larger will cause both relief and concern for Brown and MPs and aides loyal to him.

There will be relief that McDonagh and the MPs working with her failed to gather enough support for a successful, and high-profile protest. Had she gathered enough names, a "challenge" motion would have been put to Labour's conference in Manchester next week.

But with the relief will come a worry that while McDonagh (pictured, left) didn't get enough public support, the private momentum against Brown is likely to have significantly increased.

One minister in Lo ndon told the Sunday Herald "I was called by Siobhain last week and asked if I would support her and a number of others. I said no. But had the call come from certain members of the Cabinet, I would have had no hesitation in backing them and ensuring Gordon is challenged."

McDonagh was named on Friday as having asked for a nomination form to begin a leadership challenge. Her name was first leaked by the party, and during a round of media interviews she found she had been sacked.

The sackings continued yesterday with party vice-chairman Joan Ryan dismissed from that post and as the PM's envoy to Cyprus. Ryan, a former Home Office minister, said "direction and leadership" were being debated at "all levels of the party" and a leadership contest was now "essential".

Labour officials admitted last night that 10 other MPs have requested leadership nomination papers, among them former ministers including Frank Field, Janet Anderson, George Howarth and Fiona Mactaggart.

In an interview with BBC1's The Politics Show, Mactaggart said: "I think we should give a chance to someone else to take over, I really do. The problem that I see is a lack of clarity about our ambitions for Britain.

"Why are we responding to the kind of initiatives that the Tories have had, for example trying to provide a 2p tax cut and expecting the poorest to pay for it? That is not ... the Labour way."

Backbenchers urging a contest include Jim Dowd and Graham Stringer. Stringer, former leader of Manchester City Council was the first to call for a leadership contest earlier this year.

A second line of attack was revealed yesterday when six former ministers were named among 12 MPs who signed a critical article for Progress magazine. In the think-tank journal, high-profile MPs including former health secretary Patricia Hewitt said Brown's administration had failed to deliver a coherent winning strategy and urged the prime minister to come up with a "convincing new narrative."

One former Downing Street aide said: "This is barely coded. What they are attacking is an unconvincing administration, that has nothing new to offer and no winning story to be told. In many respects this is far more damaging than McDonagh."

Another government minister con-tacted by McDonagh said: "Her call was plain enough. Would I put my career on the line? I was not prepared to do that for a coup likely to fail. That does not mean there is not support in the party to eventually get Gordon to go. There is."

However, without a big hitter breaking ranks and challenging Brown, those close to him believe he can survive. Schools secretary Ed Balls said yesterday there was "very little chance" of Brown being being ousted before the next general election.Tony Lloyd, chairman of the parliamentary Labour party, said: "This handful of people coming out of the woodwork is not going to trigger a contest."