LONDON: Ministers rallied round embattled British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today after he faced down a leadership challenge, but the failed coup dealt him a new blow months ahead of general elections.

In a deeply embarrassing challenge to his already-weakened authority, ex ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt called on Wednesday for a ballot of ruling Labour Party lawmakers on whether Brown should remain their leader.

“It is something we could have easily done without,” admitted Justice Secretary Jack Straw, but insisted: “I think it will actually have the effect of bringing people behind the leadership even more.” Northern Ireland minister Shaun Woodward told the BBC: “What happened yesterday was without question unfortunate, it was a distraction... But what we know this morning... is that this is a party that wants Gordon Brown as leader.” Brown, lagging around 10 points behind the main opposition Conservatives in the polls and expected to lose power this year, has faced repeated rumours of a threat to his struggling leadership since succeeding Tony Blair in June 2007.

In June last year, Brown fended off a nascent leadership plot after several Cabinet ministers quit in quick succession.

British newspapers said today that Brown appeared to have seen off the latest attempt to unseat him, despite receiving only “lukewarm” public backing from some of his key Cabinet ministers.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband — who reportedly considered standing against Brown in 2008 — took seven hours to issue a statement which failed to mention Brown by name, commentators noted. The Times described Miliband’s statement as “less than wholehearted,” while The Guardian said it was “both later and less full-throated than anything offered by fellow Cabinet members.” The BBC reported on Wednesday that six Cabinet ministers had been prepared to support a coup. But Straw, among those named, today denounced the report as “sub-standard journalism.” In their letter to all Labour lawmakers, Hoon — defence secretary when Britain joined the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — and former health secretary Hewitt said the party was “deeply divided” over whether Brown should be leader. “Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way in which this question is affecting our political performance,” they wrote. The letter gained early support from a handful of persistent Brown critics, but no major Labour figure backed the move, and Hoon admitted late Wednesday that it had failed.