Mandelson to benefit from collapsed coup

London: Gordon Brown is expected to capitalise on the complete collapse of Thursday's leadership coup by quickly handing out clear election campaign roles to leading cabinet ministers, including the key strategy role to Lord Mandelson.

Uncertainty about Lab-our's election team is thought to lie behind some of the discontent inside the cabinet over his leadership.

There has been a lack of clarity for weeks about the roles of Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary; the deputy leader, Harriet Harman; and the business secretary, Mandelson. Brown has also been increasingly reliant on his long-term ally, Ed Balls, fuelling resentment by other senior cabinet figures.

During the more fraught moments in the wake of Wednesday's leadership challenge by the former cabinet ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, the prime minister was urged to adopt a more collegiate style.

One of the perceived losers from the coup, David Miliband, the foreign secretary, swung clearly behind Brown after issuing the weakest possible endorsement of the prime minister on Wednesday night. Miliband was criticised by both allies and opponents for failing either to resign or to back Brown fully.

The foreign secretary said Thursday: "We have got an election to fight, Gordon is leading us into it, we are determined to win it, under his leadership, and I am looking forward to getting stuck into it."

Brown — relieved by the certainty that he will now lead the party into the election dismissed the coup as a storm in a teacup, emphasising that it was business as usual inside Number 10. But on Wednesday, he did meet individually with three senior cabinet ministers. They discussed aspects of his leadership style, as well as his approach to the budget deficit, one of the repeated points of tension at the top of the government. Brown was told not to retreat into a "core vote" strategy which could narrow Labour's appeal to middle England.

Brown will meet his cabinet and is expected to set out plans on how to pick apart what he regards as the Conservative party's flaky spending commitments.

But he is being urged to exploit the final escape from the threat to his leadership to clarify the roles of Alexander, Mandelson and Harman, the three figures likely to be at the helm of the election. Uncertainty about their roles and the party's strategy has caused some of the unease in the cabinet.

At the same time, the ringleaders behind the abortive coup were Wednesday night facing a backlash in their constituency parties, including demands for Charles Clarke, the Norwich South MP and former home secretary, to explain himself at a meeting of his local party.

Clarke is being named by Downing Street as the man who masterminded the plot, and as the source of the claim that six named cabinet ministers wanted Brown toppled. He is seen as the conduit between disaffected cabinet ministers and both Hoon and Hewitt, though he is understood to deny this.