THE plot to topple Gordon Brown was declared a failure last night, after the Prime Minister survived a showdown with his MPs – despite the party’s worst election results.

Allies of beleaguered Mr Brown insisted the revolt had fizzled out after most backbenchers rallied round, giving him their backing at a stormy meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). Meanwhile, the rumoured “peasants revolt” by backbenchers evaporated.

The rebels had threatened to publish names when they signed up 50 supporters, but apparently failed to do so. But it is a badly damaged Mr Brown who limps on, battered by catastrophic Euroelection results and a devastating attack by another quitting minister, who warned Labour could cease to exist as a fighting force.

At the PLP, at least five Labour MPs – led by former Home Secretary Charles Clarke – demanded that he stand down, warning that Labour was doomed under his leadership.

Later, at a different meeting, former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers echoed that demand, saying: “We need a leader who can win for Labour at the next General Election and not take us to a humiliating defeat. Gordon Brown is not that leader.”

But the majority of backbenchers threw their weight behind the Prime Minister, agreeing the party must unite to see the country through the recession and deal with the expenses scandal.

Roberta Blackman-Woods, the Durham City MP, said: “The revolt is not going anywhere, as far as I can see. “I don’t think they have got the numbers, or the momentum, because there was such an overwhelming show of support for the Prime Minister.”

And when asked if MPs had turned on Mr Brown, Redcar MP and Solicitor General Vera Baird replied: “None that you wouldn’t have expected to. Gordon gave a brilliant speech.”

At the meeting, Mr Brown struck a tone of humility, promising to listen to a wider section of the party and consult more, as well as warning of the perils of division. He told his MPs: “I’m not here to beg for unity, what I’m here to do is to make the argument for unity. Then colleagues must decide.”

There were loud cheers when he entered and finished speaking. Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson emerged from the meeting saying Mr Brown had put on a “tremendous” display.

“What came out of it for me was that we’ve got to stop this Blairite versus Brown battle,” said Mr Wilson, who was among the “famous five” who campaigned to get Mr Blair first elected in 1983. “I’ve been a Blairite longer than anyone, but there’s no use us coalescing around someone who isn’t here any more.

“We’ve got to stop this polarisation around personalities. It shouldn’t be Blair against Brown, the real battle is Labour against Tories and I think we have a really strong story to tell.”

Before the meeting, Mr Brown had offered concessions to shore up his position and to prevent the rebellion spreading to MPs on the left of the party. He will delay, but not scrap, plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail – a vote originally timetabled for today – and accelerate proposals for an inquiry into the basis for the Iraq invasion.

However, even the gloomiest MPs were shocked by Labour’s plunge to a pitiful 15.7 per cent of the popular vote in the European elections – the worst result since it scored only seven per cent in 1910.

The scale of the defeat, with by-elections to come, makes it likely that the rebels will continue to snipe at Mr Brown through the summer and the autumn conference.

The latest Government resignation came when Environment Minister Jane Kennedy walked out, condemning Mr Brown’s “smears” of opponents and warning that the public also hated it.

In the most damning criticism yet, Ms Kennedy said: “It is the smears and the undermining orchestrated by No 10 – that kind of politics is the kind I have objected to all my adult life. “He wants to fight on, but my fear is it will be to the bitter end of the Labour Party.

“We are in such a serious position that I really fear that we are fighting for the future of the Labour Party.”

Ms Kennedy, a Liverpool MP, grew up in Darlington, attending the town’s Haughton Comprehensive School and then Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College.

The Euro-election results offered a litany of horror statistics for Labour – third to UKIP nationally, pushed into second place by the Tories in Wales for the first time since 1918 and into sixth place in Cornwall, by the Cornish nationalists.

Worse, to the shame of many Labour MPs, the far right British National party clinched its first two seats in the European parliament, including one in Yorkshire. The only crumb of comfort for Labour was that the Conservatives, in polling only 27.7 per cent, failed to make the sort of breakthrough that points to a General Election landslide.

The rebels have been seen off for now because too many Labour MPs feared Mr Brown’s departure would trigger an immediate General Election – and certain defeat.

They also failed to identify a rival leader and, crucially, alternative policies – a weakness pinpointed yesterday by key leftwinger and Brown critic Jon Cruddas.

The backbencher, who insisted he was not a leadership contender, said: “It is solely about shuffling the pack, getting some other bloke in and moving Gordon Brown out, as if that will resolve things. If that becomes a panacea, that is delusional.”

■ More than half the electorate (52 per cent) want Gordon Brown to resign immediately as Prime Minister, according to a poll released yesterday. But the survey for BBC2’s Daily Politics programme suggested that Labour will lose the General Election even if the party does change its leader.