In a deeply embarrassing challenge to his already-weakened authority, ex ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt called Wednesday for a ballot of governing 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 government ministers quit in quick succession and one, James Purnell, urged him to step down.

Commentators agreed Thursday 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 Wednesday that six Cabinet ministers had been prepared to support a coup. But Straw, among those named, on Thursday denounced the report as "sub-standard journalism."

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth was also alleged to be among those backing the plotters, but a spokesman denied this. "The prime minister has Bob's full support," he said, adding: "Mr Ainsworth had no part in this so-called plot."

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.

"I had hoped that Labour MPs would recognise over many, many months now they have been unhappy about the leadership," he told the BBC, but admitted it was an "opportunity that Labour MPs by and large have not taken."

Peter Mandelson, Business Secretary and Brown's effective deputy, said the plot had "blown through the corridors of Westminster (parliament) and out of the window."

The timing of the row could hardly be worse for Brown: he and Conservative leader David Cameron effectively started election campaigning this week after the Christmas break, even though ballots are not expected until May.

Brown himself has still not commented on the plot.

But Cameron said the fresh Labour infighting showed that the government was "deeply divided."

"This is incredibly depressing for the country," he told BBC radio.

"We cannot go on like this, we've got to have an election and a change of government," he said, adding: "If ever there was a time when our country needed strong leadership and united government, it is today."

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