GORDON BROWN appeared last night to have survived an extraordinary third coup attempt, but allies admitted he was damaged only four months before a General Election.

A last-gasp coup by former Cabinet ministers Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon failed to trigger the high-level resignations needed to bring down the Prime Minister.

Only a handful of backbenchers supported their call for a secret ballot of Labour MPs to decide Mr Brown’s fate, while many more attacked the move as treacherous and possibly disastrous, given the looming election.

But in sharp contrast with the last attempt, in June, there was no rush of Cabinet ministers to TV studios to voice outright support for the Prime Minister.

Six hours after Ms Hewitt and Mr Hoon demanded the ballot, arguing it would settle the leadership issue once and for all, there was no word from Foreign Secretary David Miliband, deputy leader Harriet Harman or Welsh Secretary Peter Hain.

Although Business Secretary Lord Mandelson put out a statement, insisting “the Prime Minister continues to have the support of his colleagues”, it lacked the warm words of previous tributes to his leadership.

Backbenchers, including many from the region, were furious that a difficult week for Conservative leader David Cameron, who slipped up over tax breaks to support marriage, had been turned into another Labour crisis.

Their anger reflected a widespread fear that Labour would end up with the worst possible result – a leader still standing, but badly wounded, with an election likely on May 6.

Durham MP Roberta Blackman- Woods said: “I have got no time for what they are doing.

“It’s a huge distraction and I don’t recognise what they are saying about the parliamentary Labour Party being divided.

Durham North MP Kevan Jones said the affair was damaging, adding: “It is completely bizarre and not helpful.

“Our job has got to be resisting the Tories, because the last thing Durham and the North-East needs is another Tory government.”

Ashok Kumar (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) said: “I strongly support the Prime Minister.

“I have admired his intellect and political philosophy for 20 years.”

And Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) said he was “bemused by it”, adding: “How important can it be when one of the people leading it [Ms Hewitt] is not even standing at the next election?”

But another outgoing senior Blairite MP, Hilary Armstrong (Durham North-West) declined to comment, while a third, Alan Milburn (Darlington), was unavailable.

But many doubted Ms Hewitt and Mr Hoon would have acted without the belief that a Cabinet minister would go “over the top”.

On Tuesday, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell was forced to deny she was on the verge of resigning.

Mr Brown learned of the coup attempt minutes before arriving for questions in the Commons, when he was told that all Labour MPs were being urged to call for the secret ballot.

The rebels denied it was a coup attempt. Instead, their email warned the party was “deeply divided over the question of the leadership”, which was “damaging our ability to set out our strong case to the electorate”.

Arguing that a ballot was the “only way to resolve this issue”, they wrote: “There is a risk otherwise that the persistent background briefing and grumbling could continue up to, and possibly through, the election campaign.”

Ms Hewitt called for a ballot on Monday, but Labour insisted there was nothing in the party’s rules to allow it.

The backing of 20 per cent of MPs is required for a challenge.

Number 10 insisted Mr Brown was “relaxed and getting on with the job as Prime Minister”, while his closest ally, Ed Balls, dismissed the email as a “damp squib” by a few disgruntled MPs.

The move came as a shock to Downing Street, which believed it had seen off the plotters last summer, but followed growing rumours of a Cabinet split over how to cut the yawning budget deficit.

There is frustration at Mr Brown’s performance and a fear that his refusal to use the word “cuts” is providing easy ammunition for the Tories.

Crucially, the discontent is over tactics, rather than a policy issue, and none of the coup attempts has put forward a credible rival leader.