Members of Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet are holding talks with MPs plotting a leadership challenge in the wake of the anti-Semitism row engulfing Labour.

Senior figures in the party are now so concerned about the row costing the party hundreds of seats at next week's local elections that they are openly discussing the possibility of an attempted coup following the EU referendum.

As the crisis deepened on Friday David Abrahams, a major party donor, called for Mr Corbyn to quit, saying “Labour needs strong leadership”.

It came at the end of the most damaging week so far of Mr Corbyn’s leadership, which saw him forced to suspend his close ally Ken Livingstone after he was labelled a “disgusting Nazi apologist”.

Mr Corbyn last night appeared to concede that MPs will mount a leadership challenge in the coming months, saying “we will have an election” in the event of a coup.