LONDON, (Reuters) – Two former British cabinet  ministers yesterday called for a secret ballot of MPs to  decide if Prime Minister Gordon Brown should lead the Labour  Party into an election due by June.

Brown’s spokesman said the prime minister was “relaxed and  getting on with the job”, while senior ministers including the  finance minister Alistair Darling and Foreign Secretary David  Miliband publicly backed their boss.

“No one should over-react,” said Business Secretary Peter  Mandelson. “The prime minister continues to have the support of  his colleagues. We should carry on government business as  usual.”

The move brought to a head long-simmering discontent over  Brown’s leadership just months before an election which the  opposition Conservatives are expected to win. The most likely  poll date is May 6 — four months from today.   British financial markets largely shrugged off the challenge  and analysts said they expected it to fizzle out.

The timing was a surprise as many commentators feel it is  too late to replace Brown before the election and Labour has  started to claw back some ground from the Conservatives in  recent opinion polls. There is no obvious successor to Brown.

“Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way  in which this (leadership) question is affecting our political  performance,” Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt said in a letter to  Labour members of parliament. “The only way to resolve this  issue would be to allow every member to express their view in a  secret ballot.”

Hoon and Hewitt have served in a variety of government  posts. However, Hewitt was planning to stand down at the next  election and it is not clear how much support they command among  Labour MPs beyond those who have long been critical of Brown.

As unusually heavy snow fell across the country and cloaked  the houses of parliament, Labour figures said the challenge had  little chance of gathering momentum and would soon melt away.

“It is not what the Parliamentary Labour Party wants nor  frankly what the British public wants,” Tony Lloyd, chairman of  the parliamentary Labour Party told BBC television.

Miliband and Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan  Johnson, both often touted as possible Labour leaders, offered  their support to Brown.

“I am working closely with the prime minister on foreign  policy issues and support the re-election campaign for a Labour  government that he is leading,” Miliband said.

Brown served as finance minister for a decade under Tony  Blair before replacing him mid-term in 2007. Brown’s critics say  he lacks charisma and his ratings have suffered during a deep  recession and an increasingly bloody campaign in Afghanistan.

The centre-right Conservatives, seeking a return to power  after 13 years, pressed their calls for an early election.

“Ministers are more concerned about saving their own  political skin than actually getting Britain out of the  monumental mess we are in,” said party chairman Eric Pickles.

“We cannot go on like this. The only responsible thing the  government can do is call a general election.”

Political commentators said rebels had fluffed their chance  of ousting Brown last June when several ministers, including  Hoon, resigned but a rebellion petered out.

“Now, in an election year itself, to call for a secret  ballot of the parliamentary party, looks hugely self-indulgent  by two ministers who are on the downslope themselves in that the  best of their career has gone, and I think that is the way the  parliamentary party frankly will view this,” said Jonathan  Tonge, head of politics at Liverpool University.