Brown could face autumn coup attempt

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown could face another attempt to depose him by disgruntled Labour MPs, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said on Friday.

Mandelson told the Daily Telegraph he expected the threat to Brown could emerge in the autumn when Labour meets for its annual conference.

"There's a small group who keep coming back. They won't be reconciled to the Prime Minister's leadership," he said.

However, Mandelson said he would not "lose any sleep" over the threat.

Mandelson was speaking a week after Brown faced down a potential threat to his premiership when several members of his cabinet resigned and there was speculation that backbench Labour MPs were trying to rally support for a potential challenger.

Brown was reeling from a disastrous showing in last week's local and European elections as well as suffering from the fallout of a scandal involving politicians' expense claims.

However, the revolt failed to materialise as cabinet ministers decided to back Brown and he was given overwhelming support by MPs at a party meeting on Monday night.

In another interview, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he considered joining his friend, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, and resigning from government.

"I'd made my decision (to stay) on Thursday. Sometimes you can make your decisions with great planning and calculation and sometimes you have to make them rather more quickly. James made his decision in good faith, I made my decision in good faith...we all have to live with our decisions," he told the Guardian.

(Reporting by Frank Prenesti; Editing by Angus MacSwan)