Plans to make it easier to remove Labour MPs, fast-track the return of expelled members, and accept supporters of hard-left groups are to be unveiled at the party’s conference, the Observer has learned.

In a move that will intensify the latest bout of bitter infighting between supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and his critics, local Labour groups from across the country will attempt to overhaul party rules with measures that would hand more power to the membership.

Labour’s leadership is now under pressure to kill off the proposals, which threaten to cause renewed anger among MPs and put them at greater risk of deselection.

Frank Field, the veteran Birkenhead MP, resigned the party whip last week after complaining of a “culture of nastiness, bullying and intimidation”. He also criticised the party over its handling of the row over antisemitism that has raged all summer. Labour is braced for further resignations this week.

On Sunday, the former Labour minister Dame Margaret Hodge launched a fresh attack on Corbyn, accusing the Labour leadership of harbouring a “hatred of Jews”. Hodge, who attends a Jewish Labour Movement conference in London on Sunday with ex-PM Gordon Brown, told the Sunday Times: “All (the leadership) can think about is their internal Labour party and their hatred of Jews … Jeremy has allowed antisemitism and racism to run rife. He needs to renounce much of what he did.”

On Saturday, the Labour former home secretary David Blunkett called for “seismic change” and a rethink of the “Corbyn project” in an article for the Daily Telegraph.

MPs are demanding an emergency meeting of the parliamentary party when they return to Westminster. They want assurances that the leadership will get a grip on the crisis and take decisive steps to stop antisemitism.

“It is up to the leadership to keep this party together,” said one senior backbencher. “The leadership will end up being the midwife of any new party that emerges if they cannot act to ensure the party stays united.”

There is also anger among Labour MPs that senior members of the shadow cabinet have opted not to intervene in the row. “There are several members who have aspirations to replace Jeremy and have shown a total lack of leadership,” said one MP.

It is a crucial week for the party. A gathering of its ruling body will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to adopt all of the examples of antisemitism set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The vast majority of MPs want all the examples to be adopted, but allies of the leader are preparing to add clarifications to them. They fear that free speech about the actions of Israel could be damaged by not doing so.

An array of rule changes demanded by Labour’s grassroots membership, which is overwhelmingly supportive of Corbyn’s leadership, are set to be debated and voted on at the party’s conference this month.

One of the most contentious proposals, put forward by five local branches, would scrap a rule put in place when the party was fighting the hard-left Militant group in the 1980s. This makes it an expellable offence to “support a political organisation other than an official Labour group”.

Party insiders said that scrapping the rule would open Labour membership to people in hard-left political organisations such as the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty.

Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

There are eight different rule changes submitted by 13 Labour branches that seek to make it easier to remove sitting MPs. Most of the proposals would scrap the existing system, under which a sitting MP is reselected with a simple majority of local parties and trade union branches. Instead, most demand a full reselection process, with members choosing from a shortlist that would include the sitting MP.

Another proposal targets the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, who has criticised Labour’s handling of the antisemitism row. It envisages his role being split into two, with a woman holding at least one of the new positions.

There is also an attempt to accelerate the return of Labour members who have been expelled. Currently, an expelled member cannot reapply for membership for five years. The latest proposed rule change would allow them back in after as little as a year.

The party did not wish to comment on how the rule changes would be treated by the leadership. However, sources said the proposals had not yet been discussed by Labour’s ruling national executive committee.

While the party may be able to block some of the proposals, others will be stopped only if the local branches involved can be persuaded by the leader’s team to withdraw them.

Labour’s leadership is also planning its own reforms to party rules under the “democracy review” carried out by a former Labour MP, Katy Clark. It includes plans to give members more power through e-voting, which could give them a stronger role in deciding policy and internal appointments.