A chaotic Labour Party was stumbling last night towards its showpiece conference after more MPs joined the mutiny against Gordon Brown’s leadership and urged the Cabinet to find the courage to drop him.

Senior ministers despaired as the number publicly calling for a leadership contest went into double figures.

Cabinet members took to the air-waves to back the Prime Minister, but were told by Downing Street to show “respect” to the rebels and not criticise them personally – underlining the fragility of Mr Brown’s position.

The dissidents have little chance of reaching the 71 names needed to force a contest, but ministers such as John Hutton, David Miliband and Geoff Hoon nevertheless stopped short of condemning the uprising against Mr Brown.

Fiona Mactaggart, the former Home Office minister, Barry Gardiner and Gordon Prentice yesterday joined those calling publicly for someone else to be given a chance to take over.

The rebels have acted now because of frustration that Cabinet ministers failed to move against Mr Brown. They had hoped through the summer for a high-profile resignation that would have forced the party to make a choice between him and other candidates. One said: “At some point the Cabinet will have to decide.”

In a BBC interview Ms Mactaggart called on senior ministers to show “courage”, suggesting that some of them supported the rebels privately.

Before the emergence at the weekend of the list of MPs calling for their leadership nomination papers, the general view in the parliamentary party, including the Cabinet, had been that Mr Brown should be given his chance to reassert his authority at next week’s Manchester conference.

The Cabinet interventions yesterday seemed certain to allow that to happen. But ministers said privately that, although the rebels had got their timing wrong, their action could leave Mr Brown facing a further crisis in the autumn. “Gordon will get his conference, but this madness cannot be allowed to go on for ever. Sooner or later it has to be faced up to,” a senior party figure said.

Mr Hutton, the Business Secretary, and Mr Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, showed understanding with the rebel cause as they rejected any contest. “I’m not going to criticise any of my colleagues who want Labour to do better, and neither am I going to criticise those who say that we do need to set out a stronger vision of what we are doing,” Mr Hutton told the BBC. Mr Miliband said: “I think there’s a recognition from the top of the party down . . . that these are very, very challenging times for the Labour Party.”

Mr Hoon showed the sort of tolerance towards rebels not usually seen in a chief whip. “It’s important that people who have something to say in a democracy come out and say it,” he said.

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