Jeremy Corbyn is ‘incompetent’ says shadow Defence Minister

Labour sources would not be drawn on the reports, saying that they did not comment on reshuffles.

Watson also called for a period of silence from Ken Livingstone, who has said he would support the deselection of Labour MPs who voted in favour of airstrikes in Syria to be deselected – although he acknowledged taht this was probably an “impossible dream”.

In advance of last night’s by-election in Oldham, where Labour increased its share of the vote, Momentum last weekend organised free buses for activists to the constituency, bringing hundreds of people from across the United Kingdom to campaign for Labour’s candidate.

“Jeremy Corbyn’s elected representatives are coming under pressure from people who think they are operating in the leader’s name and only the leader and his team can take action to distance themselves from people who are not Labour representatives”.

“But, as we have both said many times, abuse and intimidation have no place in politics”.

Chief whip Rosie Winterton, shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle, shadow culture secretary Michael Dugher and shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Vernon Coaker are among the figures reportedly who could be vulnerable if Mr Corbyn does move against the dissenters.

The two men wrote that the issue “has inevitably led to a big debate”, adding: “Labour MPs voted by a clear majority against the air strikes in the end”. One MP said that colleagues had received images of severed heads.

There have been suggestions that Mr Watson could step in and take over as leader if Mr Corbyn is forced to quit, but he insisted he never wanted to lead the party – and praised Mr Corbyn as a friend.

“This platform explicitly seeks to transform the party from the traditional centralised party into something more akin to a mass social movement, responding to the rising demand for greater activist engagement”.

“The election of Jeremy Corbyn reflected a mood among a whole layer of people for change in politics”.

Barrow-in Furness MP John Woodcock said he had “reported to police a Facebook purportedly from Barrow inciting criminal behaviour to give me a “wake up call” after Syria vote”.

But in a statement, Momentum said: “Momentum strongly disapproves of anyone who engages in abusive behaviour towards MPs or anyone else, and threatening or bullying, whether they are outside the Labour Party (as most are) or inside it”.

Shadow leader of the Commons Chris Bryant admitted he had not the “faintest idea” about a possible frontbench reschuffle, but urged Labour to unite.

Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, told Sky News Mr Corbyn had put forward “a very positive agenda” which had the support of “overwhelming numbers of members in the party”.

Asked if he would like Mr Corbyn to do that, he added: “No I’m not calling for that…Jeremy has a massive mandate from hundreds of thousands of people in the Labour Party who voted for him, I think we as a party have got to do better, we can’t just look like a rabble”.

He added: “As Mr Cameron mentioned, we are over 70,000 fighters”. There’s an important issue here – any country which fails to co-ordinate with the Syrian army and the Syrian government is not fighting Daesh, they are just pretending to do so to look good in front of their parliaments and people. “What I’ve seen of the way Jeremy Corbyn has handled this in shadow cabinet is that he’s been very keen to stress respect for the different views”, he told BBC1’s Sunday Politics programme.

But the Free Syrian Army opposition group has claimed British intervention is “just a few more jets” over the course of a long campaign.