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Top Labour MPs have rallied round party leader Ed Miliband, as it was reported a Black Country MP was among those calling for him to quit.

Ian Austin (Lab Dudley North) was not responding to requests for comment following reports that he is one of two Labour MPs warning that Mr Miliband must resign if the party hopes to win the next election.

Greater Manchester MP Simon Danczuk is the other.

But the reports, which follow months of concern among Labour MPs that the party should be much further ahead in the polls than it is, prompted Mr Miliband’s supporters to plead for unity.

Birmingham MP Liam Byrne (Lab Hodge Hill), a shadow business minister, said: “Labour is totally focused on winning the next election under Ed Miliband’s leadership.”

Shadow Health Minister Andy Burnham said: “I say to everybody in the Labour Party, the time is now to stand together, to pull together and to be a united team.”

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna - often tipped as a future leader - warned Labour should not be distracted by “nonsense” about the leadership.

He said: “The simple fact is that because of Ed Miliband’s leadership we are now within touching distance of being what many thought impossible four years ago.”

Labour’s election co-ordinator Douglas Alexander issued a plea for the party to “pull together”, warning: “Every one of us in the Labour Party has to reflect the reality that divided parties lose elections.”

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said: “Ed Miliband is the right person to lead Labour and the right person to lead Britain. He has shown the ideas and the leadership to take Labour into government and to complete the historic task of Labour as a one-term opposition.”

Some Labour MPs are privately concerned about a poll showing voters believe they will be better off under the Tories than Labour; polls showing the party’s vote is near collapse in Scotland, and evidence that support for UKIP has grown in traditional Labour areas.