Ed Miliband has survived a plot to depose him just six months before the general election — but the dodgy briefings against the embattled Labour leader won’t go away, sources warned last night.

Mr Miliband (pictured) used a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) yesterday to shift focus on to his plan for government, but it was his competence that dominated journalists’ questions after the address.

When one reporter asked if Mr Miliband “ever wished the other guy had won,” he swiftly replied: “Definitely not.”

Senior party figures rallied round Mr Miliband, with shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna saying he was backing his leader “one thousand per cent.”

Mr Umunna told the Today programme: “There is a lot of talk about polls, and those go up and down. But under Ed’s leadership we are now within touching distance of a general election victory.

“We are a serious prospect for government after going down to our second-worst defeat in history in 2010.”

But embarrassingly, Mr Umunna appeared to confuse

Mr Miliband with his brother David in a later interview.

“I know, for my constituency, (we have) a united Labour Party in ensuring that we get David, um, that we get Ed Miliband into No 10,” he told Sky News.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, who one newspaper last week reported had made a succession pact with shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, said she was “supporting Ed and the work that he is doing, because he is right to be talking about jobs, about businesses.”

On Saturday the Star revealed that Mr Burnham had threatened to stand against Alan Johnson for the leadership if Labour right-wingers including deputy chief whip Alan Campbell successfully toppled Mr Miliband.

Though this reportedly put plotters on the back foot, they appeared to have gained strength again by Saturday night, briefing Sunday papers that they had the support of 20 shadow ministers.

But on Monday night a party source told the Star that the coup attempt was “probably dead.”

“People will keep undermining him like that until the election,” the source said. “It’s not helpful — nor will it ever be a killer blow.”