Jim Murphy could be leader of Scottish Labour from Westminster by "doing an Alex Salmond", his supporters insist.

The SNP leader famously returned to head his party in 2004 but was re-elected to Holyrood only in 2007.

A number of Labour MPs believe that the current Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont should step aside to make way for Mr Murphy, the former Scottish Secretary, who toured 100 Scottish towns and cities this summer speaking against independence from the top of an Irn Bru crate.

Even those who want Mr Murphy in the job expect the SNP to make much of the fact that Labour's leader would not be in the Scottish Parliament.

But another said that being at Westminster would be no barrier to being Scottish leader in the short-term. "He could do an Alex Salmond," he said, "and the SNP would not be able to throw anything at us, because their leader did it too."

In that scenario, supporters believe an MSP could lead the party at Holyrood and Mr Murphy could enter the Scottish Parliament in 2016. However, they accept that under party rules Ms Lamont will make any decision on her future.

One Labour MP said that any decision on a change in leadership would have to be taken over the next couple of weeks. Labour is under pressure to move ahead with selections for its candidates for Scottish Parliament seats.

One Labour MP said that if there was no leadership change everyone in the party should "get behind Johann". "We are fighting a general election in eight months and a Holyrood election in 18 months. We have to get behind whoever is the leader," he said.

Mr Murphy lost his job as shadow defence secretary in Ed Miliband's last reshuffle, effectively demoted to shadow international development secretary.

But within Labour he is widely seen as having had an extremely good referendum campaign.

Some Labour sources yesterday suggested speculation around Mr Murphy's future also did no harm to his ambitions should Labour win next year's general election.

Mr Murphy has insisted that there is "no vacancy" and that his focus is to become a member of Mr Miliband's cabinet.

Aides insist Ms Lamont has no plans to resign. "She set out plans to lead the party into 2016; that's the plan. She won't be saying anything anytime soon," one said.

At the Labour conference in Manchester, the Glasgow MSP said: "I look forward to working with Ed in Number 10 and to lead Scottish Labour to victory in 2016."

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "Our focus at the moment is uniting Scotland behind the decision to stay in the United Kingdom and returning Labour to power."