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Douglas Alexander warned Labour MPs that "divided parties lose elections"
The Labour Party's general election co-ordinator has urged his party to "pull together", warning that "divided parties lose elections".
Douglas Alexander's remarks came after party leader Ed Miliband was forced to dismiss as "nonsense" claims that some Labour MPs wanted him to resign.
It is understood Mr Miliband's leadership was questioned at a meeting of Labour MPs from north-west England.
But Labour MP Diane Abbott said Mr Miliband was "not going anywhere".
Recent polls have suggested Labour is on course to lose seats to the Scottish National Party, and that Mr Miliband is now less popular than his Liberal Democrat counterpart Nick Clegg.
Sources say MPs from north-west England discussed moving to a defensive strategy in a bid to hold on to their seats, rather than an offensive one aimed at winning the election.
The BBC has learned that the leadership was discussed on Wednesday, at a regular social gathering of Labour MPs from the 2010 intake.
'Cutting edge'The BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith said there was a "wide degree of disillusionment" about Mr Miliband's leadership.
"But there is no way anyone can see of doing anything about it," he added.
"If they could have a magic wand and just wave Ed Miliband away I'm sure they would love it. But they don't."
Labour backbencher John Mann, a critic of the leadership in the past, said Mr Miliband needed a "cutting edge" if the party was to win back power.
Asked if Mr Miliband could turn things around, he said yes but added: "He needs to do the right thing. What he does not need is more policies... He needs to go out literally on the doorstep, listen to people and reflect on what they are saying."
Analysis BBC political correspondent Chris MasonWhile accurately measuring gloom is impossible, there is rather a lot of it about among Labour MPs - and more than there was.
It is six months to the day until the general election, and, as opinion polls suggest Labour's lead is narrowing and Ed Miliband is less popular than his party, some fret this could not just stunt Labour's progress at the election, but cost them their seats.
But Labour does take comfort from not being the sole home of political gloom. The atmosphere's sufficiently febrile, the polls sufficiently in flux, to mean the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are not immune from nervy bouts of worry either.
But former Cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw, who backed Mr Miliband's brother David in the 2010 leadership contest, said he was "optimistic" that the Labour leader would be in Downing Street in six months time.
"I didn't support Ed Miliband but I have been massively impressed by what he's achieved," he told BBC Breakfast.
"He's held the Labour party together, he's correctly identified the challenges facing this country, in that we have an economy that doesn't work for most people.
"He's developed a very good policy programme on energy, on housing, on jobs and growth and I think he will win the election."
'Whingeing'And Ms Abbott, who has been a MP for 20 years, dismissed the doubt cast on Mr Miliband's leadership as Labour MPs "whingeing".
"You don't take on your brother for the leadership of the party and step down when you're poised to win," she said.
And Labour Party donor John Mills called for MPs to rally round Mr Miliband in the midst of what he said was a "fragmenting" of the political landscape.
"It's now much more difficult to get a clear narrative that a large proportion of the population will support - you've got UKIP fracturing the right, you've got the SNP fracturing the left," he told BBC's Newsnight.
He also said he thought that Mr Miliband had been picking the right issues to focus on, citing examples such as fuel prices, bankers' bonuses and the standard of living.
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