In a move that may store up longer-term wrangling, the Business Secretary is said to have intervened to defend the Chancellor and finally seal the loyalty of the Cabinet.
Rebel backbenchers, who had relied on ministers going over the top behind Mr Purnell, were left in disarray but still insisted that some were on their side. Siobhan McDonagh, the Blairite who took part in the botched coup last autumn, revealed that ministers' protestations of support for Mr Brown were not all they seemed. “I know that some of the Cabinet who are putting that view don't actually believe it in private,” she said.
But with public statements the only weapons that mattered, Downing Street knew that the immediate threat of a leadership challenge was receding. In contrast to the ruthless fightback, the rebels looked ragged and Mr Purnell was derided as a “lone ranger” by Brown allies. As Ms McDonagh put it herself, without intended irony, “there's no level of co-ordination going on here”.
One minister said that Lord Mandelson had given a stark warning that a leadership challenge would trigger a snap general election. “It came down to a simple choice between a slow death under Gordon or a quick death under someone else,” one said.
The choreographed nature of the “defend Gordon” campaign was underlined by a Labour party message sent to all MPs and ministers instructing them on the “lines to take” on everything from Purnell's resignation to the election results.
The memo, which has been leaked to the Standard, urges them to say, for example: “I think the whole cabinet have found James Purnell's resignation surprising and disappointing.”
The drama had been sparked at 9.55 last night when Mr Purnell's fateful email, containing his resignation letter, finally pinged into the No 10 inbox. The air was thick with four-letter words because he had clearly briefed the Sun, Times and Guardian much earlier in the evening.
Downing Street staffers last night were working on the election results and looking at the first draft of the reshuffle “organogram” — with desks littered with post-it notes with different names on them — when the bomb went off. The bitterness of Mr Brown's allies was palpable.
“We've just worked our socks off trying to get the vote out all day and then he does this,” spat one. “We always knew he was close to the Tories, but this is it,” added another.
One friend of Mr Purnell told the Evening Standard that his main priority had been to speak only after the polls had closed and that he wanted to act alone. “James is not a Tory, he's not a friend of George Osborne,” said the friend.
His resignation letter makes clear he desperately does not want David Cameron to become Prime Minister. He will now go to the backbenches, he won't be making speeches or giving interview. He's done what he felt he had to,” the friend said.
It rapidly became clear that some of Mr Purnell's closest Cabinet allies were kept in the dark. “If this is a Blairite plot, it's a particularly cack-handed one”, one MP said.
Downing Street sources revealed that ministers were immediately ringing in with support from across the country. Many were miles from TV studios, but those in London were deployed straight onto the 24-hour broadcasters. “They volunteered support without us asking,” said one aide.
Crucially, David Miliband, Andy Burnham - a former flatmate of Mr Purnell- and John Hutton all made clear that they were standing by Mr Brown.
There was further drama as veteran MP Barry Sheerman led the BBC News with his own call for a secret ballot of MPs to decide Mr Brown's fate.
Mr Sheerman was driving back from the Leeds TV studios when he was texted by his local party chairman warning him of a Downing Street attack on him. He said Yvette Cooper, a fellow Yorkshire MP as well as Cabinet minister, had contacted local officials with a view to deselecting him. Ms Cooper's office denied the charge.
In a sign of the fevered atmosphere, sources close to Mr Brown were still wary of the ambitions of Alan Johnsonamid reports that his close ally Gerry Sutcliffe had been testing the water for a future leadership bid.
Mr Johnson's supporters — Mr Sheerman, and trade unions and NEC member Margaret Prosser — were among today's rebels.
Today, rebels' hopes of an overthrow were dealt their two biggest blows from the men most likely to launch a challenge. First David Miliband gave an interview backing Mr Brown.
Then John Hutton appeared to kill off a Cabinet walkout by also supporting the Prime Minister. For the time being at least, the fightback had worked.
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