Senior Cabinet ministers have told The Times that the chances of an alternative heavyweight candidate emerging to challenge the Chancellor have receded substantially in the weeks since the party conference. One said: “The chances of an ‘Anyone but Gordon’ candidate coming through at this stage are virtually nil.”

Mr Blair went close to anointing Mr Brown in the Commons yesterday and his closest allies have disclosed that he wants the Cabinet to unite behind the Chancellor as the candidate who will carry forward the new Labour flame.

They say that despite his anger that Mr Brown did not do more to help him during the summer leadership crisis, when he was eventually forced into saying that he would leave office next year, Mr Blair is fully reconciled to Mr Brown winning a leadership election and believes that he should be supported.

There has been a distinct change in mood at the top of the party since Blairite anger over the plot to oust him led some ministers to threaten that Mr Brown would be opposed.

Ministerial friends of John Reid, the Home Secretary, say that he has no real desire to stand for the leadership and has intimated as much to Mr Brown. John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who in the past has been critical of Mr Brown, has said publicly that he is unlikely to stand and has backed Mr Brown’s new Labour credentials. Friends of Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, say that he is focusing his efforts on his attempt to become deputy leader.

Mr Brown is felt to have re-established himself as the obvious heir apparent by making efforts to widen his appeal, delivering a series of noneconomic speeches and becoming involved in Mr Blair’s new policy groups.

Mr Blair has told a close Cabinet friend privately that a fourth Labour term under Mr Brown is the legacy that he most seeks. Yesterday in the Commons he was asked by David Cameron whom he wanted to be the next prime minister. He launched into a paean of praise for Mr Brown.

One of his strongest Cabinet critics said that Mr Brown would fail to be the Cabinet’s sole nominee only if he again became impatient about Mr Blair’s leaving date or if he were seen to stand in the way of key reforms. The minister added that there was no sign of that happening and that Mr Brown was now almost “collegiate” in the way he was consulting other ministers before making big speeches outside his Treasury brief.

The absence of a mainstream opponent for Mr Brown would leave him in a straight fight with the Left. John McDonnell, chairman of the far-left Campaign Group, has made the running by launching his leadership campaign. But it is not certain that he will eventually be the Left’s candidate. There are doubts over whether he can raise the necessary 44 signatures from MPs to stand and there are also attempts on the Left to find a more broadly representative candidate.

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