Senior Labour figures have demanded that Jeremy Corbyn orders a full postmortem on the party’s byelection humiliation in Copeland – amid fears that it could spark a meltdown in England comparable to Labour’s 2015 annihilation in Scotland.

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Deputy leader Tom Watson and Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer both delivered pointed criticism of Corbyn for his refusal to take any blame for the loss of the Labour stronghold, saying it was time for the leadership to undertake a thorough re-examination of the party’s entire direction.

Watson, speaking at the Scottish Labour conference in Perth, raised the spectre of the party’s virtual wipeout in Scotland being repeated south of the border, as he called for Labour to take a “long hard look at ourselves and ask what’s working” before it is too late.

Starmer, in a speech in London, said the “worst thing” Labour could do would be to “normalise defeat” and “walk past” results that were disastrous for the party and merited an honest admission that all was far from well. Pressure on Corbyn mounted further as Gerard Coyne, who is challenging Corbyn’s close ally Len McCluskey for the leadership of the super-union Unite, weighed in. Coyne suggested in an interview with the Observer that the union was wasting its money backing a party led by Corbyn.

“The reality is that Unite has put an awful lot of money into funding a leader of the Labour party that seems to be out of step with the industrial policies and needs of our members,” Coyne said.

In the most dramatic byelection result since the 1980s, the Tories took the Cumbrian seat of Copeland – which had not been out of Labour control since 1935 – achieving the first gain by a sitting government in 35 years.

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Corbyn admitted to disappointment at the result but took comfort from Labour retaining the rock-solid seat of Stoke-on-Trent Central in the face of a challenge from Ukip. Asked if he should look in the mirror and blame himself for the Copeland debacle, the Labour leader merely said, “No.”

The result has led to fears among senior MPs that Labour could now lose dozens of previously solid seats to the Tories as Theresa May bolsters her popularity with a firm line on Brexit and immigration, and remodels the Tory party as once more in tune with the interests of working people.

In a clear reference to Corbyn’s refusal to acknowledge personal responsibility or blame for Copeland, Watson said he was “hugely disappointed” with a result that meant “that all of us with leadership roles need to have a long, hard look at ourselves and ask what’s not working. Seven years into a Tory government, we shouldn’t be facing questions about whether we can hold the seats we already hold.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Keir Starmer said the worst thing that could happen would be to normalise defeat. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Referring to the party’s virtual wipe-out north of the border, he said: “Here in Scotland, you’ve seen what happens when Labour’s long-term supporters stop voting Labour. We can’t afford to have that happen in England, too. This is not the time for a leadership election. That issue was settled last year. But we have to do better. We cannot sustain this level of distance from the electorate, from our natural supporters.”

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Starmer said: “The Labour party exists to change people’s lives. But we can’t do that if we don’t win elections. Copeland was a very bad result for Labour. I don’t think we’ve been honest enough about how bad it was.. [We can’t] walk past results we know are letting down the people that most need a Labour government.”

James Morris, the former Labour pollster, writing in the Observer, says Labour is haemorrhaging support among people it should regard as its core voters, with many heading straight into the arms of the Conservatives.

“Labour’s collapse among working-class voters is catastrophic – according to YouGov, only 16% would vote Labour at the moment. That’s troubling enough for ‘the party of working people’, but it is made doubly damaging because, contrary to expectations, Ukip is not proving the main beneficiary,” he says. “These voters are increasingly voting Conservative. After seven years of Tory austerity, Labour is 15 points behind the Conservatives among working-class likely voters, having been ahead in 2015.

“While the proportion of the population that is working class is falling steadily, it remains hard to see a route to power for a Labour party if it cannot secure a majority in this group.”

Watson also used his speech to denounce the idea of any form of alliance with another party to see off the Tories. “The idea of a progressive alliance is an electoral dead end. The last general election should have made that absolutely obvious to us all. Remember those awful posters, Ed Miliband in Alex Salmond’s pocket? They were brutal, they were unfair, but they were effective.

“The Tories weaponised the idea of a progressive alliance – of Labour propped up by the SNP – and used it as an electoral stick to beat us with. Telling the people of Scotland that they didn’t need to vote Labour to get a Labour government, and telling the people of England that a vote for the Labour party was a vote for the SNP.”

Meanwhile, a ComRes/Sunday Mirror poll reveals that more than a third of Labour voters (34%) would be more likely to vote for the party if Corbyn were replaced as leader.