PAUL KEATING says John Robertson has 25 ''dead'' MPs hanging around his neck, and if he becomes the state Labor leader he will not just drag down the opposition but become lead in the saddlebags of the Gillard government.

Joining a chorus of senior Labor figures railing against Mr Robertson succeeding Kristina Keneally, Mr Keating said the former union boss was a pivotal cause of Saturday's electoral massacre.

''If Robertson were to be elected leader, he would have no moral vantage point to lead from,'' he told the ABC's 7.30 last night.

''If you've actually connived in the destruction of the parliamentary leader and are a principal cause why 24 or 25 members of Parliament have lost their seats, if those dead men and women are hanging around your neck, and they are, you've lost the vantage of the leadership.

''You lost the point of moral authority.''