Dozens of Labour MPs take aim at Jeremy Corbyn

The motion, submitted by MP Margaret Hodge on Friday and backed by colleague Ann Coffey, calls for a debate on Corbyn’s leadership among the party’s parliamentary representatives when it next meets on Monday.

“Yes, this will have enormous consequences for the Westminster drama: not only for David Cameron, who bet the farm and lost; but also for Jeremy Corbyn who conspicuously failed to deliver the Labour heartlands”, he said.

Earlier this week Mr Corbyn said: “If the Government can’t continue forever and it ends up deciding it needs to navigate around the Fixed Term Parliaments Act in order to have a general election a little sooner, all I have got to say is we are very, very ready for that”.

Corbyn came under fire for his role in the European Union referendum which was a “test of leadership” that he had “failed”.

Several Labour members have criticised Corbyn, who was elected leader previous year on a wave of enthusiasm for his left-leaning agenda, for failing to persuade voters in his party’s heartlands in northern England and elsewhere to vote to remain. If accepted it would be followed by a secret ballot of Labour MPs on Tuesday. “I think he should reflect on his position and do the decent thing in the same way David Cameron has done”, she said.

“It is a time when our party should be uniting to deal with the real issues that face Britain and the real issues that face the people of Britain, and so to create divisions in the party is a bit of a self-indulgent act”, the spokesman said.

Shadow global development secretary Diane Abbott, one of Mr Corbyn’s closest allies, insisted his natural scepticism towards the European Union meant that he was well-placed to take the party forward after the referendum.

“Large numbers of people voted both ways in this election … there is a difference of position among Labour supporters, there is an even bigger difference of opinion amongst supporters of other parties”, he said.

Elsewhere former EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson said it was the “worst day in post-war British history” as he called for Mr Corbyn to quit.

She said: “We need a leader who is capable of meeting the challenges we face”.

“But there was also a failure of Labour leadership”.

But the petition started by Dakota Rose, which has attracted 86,054 votes at the time of writing, said: “Make your voice heard against the Blarities and keep Jeremy as rightful leader of the Labour party”.

“I thought she’d have been more concerned about the state of the economy than party discussions”, he said.

A senior Labour source said the mood within the party was one of “utter devastation, despair, horror”.

Mr Corbyn defended his conduct of the campaign, blaming Conservative austerity cuts for alienating voters.

“A lot of the message that has come back from this is that many communities are fed up with cuts, they are fed up with economic dislocation and feel very angry at the way they have been betrayed and marginalised by successive governments in very poor areas of the country”, he said.