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| Whip out of job after leader call | |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A junior member of the government is out of a job after breaking ranks to call for a challenge to Gordon Brown as party leader. | |
| Government whip Siobhain McDonagh said she wanted to "clear the air" about the leadership issue. | |
| A government spokesman said that if Ms McDonagh has not resigned then she will be sacked. The source said her replacement had already been appointed. | |
| The source said Ms McDonagh had always been "Anti-Gordon". | |
| Ms McDonagh - who was the only member of the government not to nominate Mr Brown for the party leadership last year - said she wanted a debate about the future of the party. | |
| She said "everybody" in government is talking about the leadership issue and she wanted such discussions to be out in the open. | |
| "It's about time we let party members and people involved in the Labour Party and the wider community in on that debate," she told the BBC News Channel | |
| "I think we need to clear the air. I think whoever wants to stand for leader of the Labour Party should do so and we should have a good debate about the direction of the party and the government." | |
| She said she did not have a particular candidate in mind. | She said she did not have a particular candidate in mind. |
| She is so far the only member of the government to publicly call for a leadership contest. | She is so far the only member of the government to publicly call for a leadership contest. |
| She is also thought to be among the Labour MPs to have sought details about the nomination process for a contest. | |
| It would take 70 MPs to trigger a potential leadership contest. | |
| Labour confirmed they have had letters from a "small number" of MPs asking why no nomination papers for leader were issued ahead of the party conference. | |
| Backbencher Graham Stringer was the first Labour MP to call for Mr Brown to step down, after the party's defeat at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election in May. | Backbencher Graham Stringer was the first Labour MP to call for Mr Brown to step down, after the party's defeat at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election in May. |
| And former Home Secretary Charles Clarke last week warned the party faced "destruction" at the next general election - and told Mr Brown to improve his performance or quit. | And former Home Secretary Charles Clarke last week warned the party faced "destruction" at the next general election - and told Mr Brown to improve his performance or quit. |
| Foreign Secretary David Miliband made what was widely interpreted as a leadership move when he penned an article over the summer on Labour's future without mentioning Mr Brown. | |
| But he has now publicly backed the prime minister to lead Labour into the next election. | |
| Other figures thought likely to run if there was a contest - Jack Straw and Harriet Harman - have also said they do not think there should be a contest. | |
| But Ms McDonagh's intervention means the issue is likely to dominate Labour's annual conference which gets underway in Manchester in two weeks time. |