TO loyalist smiles and applause Gordon Brown opened the Labour party conference in Manchester yesterday with an impassioned plea for unity - which was promptly ignored by his enemies.

Charles Clarke, the former home secretary, shattered any hopes of a fragile truce by calling for an immediate leadership contest.

Writing in The Sunday Times today, he rejects claims that any discussion of Brown’s fate should be suspended until the financial turmoil subsides: “Though prevarication and evasion may appear attractive at the moment, they are actually the most dangerous course of all.”

He rebuts the loyalist argument that there were no viable candidates to replace Brown, saying that the choice of Sarah Palin as the Republicans’ vice-presidential candidate in the United States showed how unknowns could quickly build a strong profile.

However, few rebels are likely to strike now, preferring to wait for Brown’s keynote speech and to size up the performances of other cabinet ministers’ to judge their leadership credentials.

Reports of doubts and divisions among Brown’s senior ministers continued to surface. Caroline Flint, the housing minister who attends cabinet, faced claims that she refused to give a public statement of support for Brown, despite party loyalists urging her to speak out.

It emerged last night that Flint, 47, discussed the issue of the leadership with Gerry Sutcliffe, the sports minister, during a chance meeting at Doncaster racecourse a week ago. Sutcliffe had urged Flint to criticise the rebel MPs who had called for Labour to send out leadership nomination forms.

According to senior Labour sources, Flint refused and told Sutcliffe there was a “problem” with the party’s direction. Last night Flint issued only lukewarm words of support for the embattled prime minister. “It is not good enough to point the finger at the top,” she said. “If truth be told, we all have to raise our game.” She also insisted she had not discussed Brown’s fate with Sutcliffe.

Alan Johnson, the health secretary and a potential candidate to succeed Brown, also wielded a double-edged sword. In an interview with his local newspaper, he managed to support Brown and also to express sympathy for the plotters out to get him.

Speaking to the Hull Daily Mail, he said: “In these circumstances there are bound to be some people on the back benches who are worried and concerned. I know some of these people. I respect them. I like them. I think they are wrong to take this action.”

At the party conference Brown strove to portray himself as a decisive leader equipped for troubled times. Referring to the financial turmoil, he said: “My first concern is for people who have mortgages, the workers in the financial industry that are worried about their jobs . . . These are the people the economy is supposed to serve.

“The Bank of England will provide the money that is necessary to make sure the mortgage industry can work and businesses will have the money they need. We have made £100 billion as loans available to make sure the financial system can move forward.”

The economic woes are unlikely to help Labour, which faces defeat in Brown’s Scottish back yard at the Glenrothes by-election next month. Labour is defending a 10,664 majority, but the latest polls point to the Scottish National party taking the seat with a 5,000-vote margin.

One Scottish ministerial aide predicted that a string of government ministers and aides would resign as a result.

“People are biding their time until the by-election which nobody expects us to win - the party seems to have thrown in the towel,” said the aide.

“You don’t want to resign before the by-election and completely scupper the chances of your by-election candidate, even though he’s almost certainly going to lose anyway.”

He claimed that “the likelihood is that several cabinet ministers will move when we lose Glenrothes and when junior ministers and PPSs [parliamentary private secretaries] get the nod from their cabinet ministers, they’ll go too”.

A Scottish minister risks disciplinary action after openly expressing sympathy for the rebels on his internet blog. Tom Harris, the transport minister and MP for Glasgow South, said the decision of David Cairns, the Scotland Office minister, to resign last Tuesday was “based on honesty and principle”. He said Cairns “deserves respect for what he has done”.

A question mark also hangs over the government career of Frank Roy, a senior whip and a leading member of the so-called Celtic mafia, who resigned from his role as the Glenrothes campaign manager. Roy, the MP for Motherwell, is understood to have become exasperated by No 10 meddling. Friends believe he is ready to resign as a whip if others go in the autumn.

Russell Brown, another west coast Scot who is the parliamentary private secretary of Des Browne, the Scottish secretary, said the prime minister should adopt a “much more open” style of government or risk the party being marginalised for a generation. Brown, the MP for Dumfries and Galloway, said: “We’re all concerned that we are so far behind the Tories.” During the past week malcontents and rebels have also been expressing support for Siobhain McDonagh, who resigned as a whip a week ago sparking the latest leadership speculation.

She said: “Nothing has happened this week that has made me think I was wrong. People now feel emboldened to say what they think. I have had an awful lot of support from people in government.”

Downing Street yesterday began a concerted attempt to reassert control over the increasingly divided party. A series of cabinet ministers headed by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, gave interviews pledging full support for Brown.

Meanwhile, 20 ministers, parliamentary aides and back-benchers have signed an open letter warning: “Internal divisions will only serve the interests of the Tories, who cannot be allowed to achieve power by default.” The letter was organised by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications, who has set up Go Fourth, a group dedicated to winning a fourth Labour general election victory.

The plotting, however, seems set to continue. Although the rebel MPs are concentrated in three distinct regions - London, the northwest and the west coast of Scotland - long-standing ties of friendship and family mean they have all been in constant touch over the past week.

Jack Straw, the justice secretary and MP for Blackburn, was forced to confirm yesterday that his Lancashire political allies led by George Howarth, a former minister and MP for Knowsley North, had privately urged him to challenge Brown.

“This is a dangerous moment,” Straw said. “It would be idle to pretend otherwise. That’s why we, all of us, have to be very, very careful and very self-disciplined.”

Energy revolt

GORDON BROWN is facing another blow to his authority with a Labour revolt over his refusal to impose a windfall tax on energy companies.

Nearly 100 MPs, trade unions, local parties and a left-wing pressure group have united to force a vote on the issue at the annual Labour conference in Manchester tomorrow.

The prime minister dismissed calls for a levy on power companies to offset the rising cost of bills, dismissing the idea of “short-term gimmicks or giveaways”.

He believes the industry would raise prices further to recoup the cost of the tax but supporters of the idea say it would help millions facing fuel poverty.

But the conference committee has agreed to allow a vote on a “windfall” motion tabled by Compass, a left-wing pressure group that has the support of 95 MPs, more than 40 local parties and the Unison and Unite unions.

They want a levy to cut bills for the poorest families and insulate homes. Delegates are expected to instruct the party’s national policy forum to reconsider the idea.

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