Rudd was behind spill move I had zero chance of winning ballot: Rudd Kevin Rudd's closest colleagues told him not to challenge Julia Gillard in the leadership spill on Thursday because it would have 'split the party down the middle.' Sacked minister Simon Crean, who sparked Labor's leadership crisis this week, says Kevin Rudd's camp had fully endorsed his intervention to demand the Prime Minister call a spill. His account directly contradicts the version of Mr Rudd, who on Friday said he had "not expected the spontaneous combustion of Mr Crean's" demand for a ballot, and promised he would never again seek the leadership. Mr Rudd's last-minute decision to back out of a challenge has led to bitter recriminations among his supporters, with Mr Crean describing Mr Rudd's key support group as "disorganised, unbelievable and shameless." Sacked: Simon Crean following his address to the media in Canberra on Thursday 21 March 2013 prompting a leadership spill. "He reneged on our deal, it was gutless," Mr Crean said. At no stage did they say to me that Rudd wouldn't run if he didn't have the numbers. "He would have been better to stand and lose; that's what Paul Keating did," in his first and failed challenge to Bob Hawke before succeeding in his second. The bloodletting came as three more senior government figures, tertiary education minister Chris Bowen, resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson and human services minister Kim Carr, quit Ms Gillard's team on Friday, joining Mr Crean on the backbench. Spontaneous combustion: Kevin Rudd says he did not expect Simon Crean's call for a ballot and that he will never again seek the leadership. Accused of failing to deliver the numbers for Mr Rudd, Mr Crean said: "I'm not going to put up with their attempt to rewrite the record." He said Mr Bowen, who led the key pro-Rudd tactical group, had told him on Thursday morning to "bring it on" before he fronted the media to demand a ballot. Mr Bowen had reassured Mr Crean that a Labor figure of his standing would precipitate a "stampede" of votes for a Rudd challenge. Mr Crean openly attacked Mr Rudd, saying his refusal to stand had exposed so many people to derision and political harm that he would never again be able to win support for a tilt at the leadership. The dispute over whether the Rudd forces sent Mr Crean out or he took them by surprise and acted alone presents a picture of a chaotic countdown to the spill. We wouldn't have pressed the button. He pressed it for us," said a senior member of the Rudd camp. But Mr Crean said he had specifically asked Mr Bowen if his "tactical group" agreed unanimously with his course of action and had been told he had full support. "I knew the risk in it but what I didn't know was that they were so badly disorganised," he said. Meanwhile, bruised Rudd loyalists claimed Mr Crean had failed to honour a deal to swing 10 MPs behind Mr Rudd in return for becoming deputy prime minister if Ms Gillard was toppled. Mr Crean denied there was any such deal and described as "bullshit" the claim that the Rudd camp had offered him the deputy prime ministership. Mr Rudd had wanted the Manager of Government Business Anthony Albanese as his deputy, he said. Mr Crean said he had not dealt directly with Mr Rudd but with Mr Bowen. After calling a news conference to announce he wanted a ballot, that he supported Mr Rudd for the leadership and that he would stand for the deputy's job, Mr Crean said he received a call from Mr Bowen saying "we've got a problem with the numbers." Shortly before the ballot was to be held, Mr Crean said Mr Rudd had phoned him to say he would not stand. "I said 'Kevin, you have to run'," Mr Crean said. Elements of the Rudd camp said they were caught flat footed because part of the deal with Mr Crean was that before any challenge was called, his numbers would be given to the offices of two of Mr Rudd's numbers men, Joel Fitzgibbon or Mr Bowen, and the MPs declaring their support for Mr Rudd would have to "look us in the eye." "He went off the air," one Rudd supporter said. We couldn't get him on the phone after Wednesday night. Mr Crean angrily denied he had dropped out of contact.