Keir Starmer is set to wield the knife among his Shadow Cabinet in a reshuffle of his top team.
The Labour leader is expected to boot out under-performing frontbenchers following the latest election disaster.
Thirteen months into his leadership, there have been persistent grumblings about the performances of some key shadow ministers – and the ballot box mauling is expected to provide the trigger for a shake-up.
One centrist backbencher told the Mirror: “Clearly Keir needs a stronger front of house team – Shadow Cabinet and throughout.
“They need a collective, coherent narrative able to punch through in the very difficult circumstances of a Government appearing to conquer a pandemic.
“But he also needs a back of house team up to the job ahead, capable of running campaigns on and offline in a way Labour has dodged or failed to deliver for too long.
“We are being outgunned and need to update our arsenal.”
It comes after a grim night for the Labour leader in early local election results.
While only a handful of English councils were declaring overnight - fewer than 20 out of 143 - none of them so far have held any kind of breakthrough for Labour, despite the party hoping to regain seats it lost in 2017.
Labour lost seats on six of the first 11 councils to declare - and gained on just two.
This included losing 10 seats in traditional bellwether Nuneaton and Bedworth - which the Tories won from No Overall Control, gaining 11 seats.
The Tories snatched Harlow in Essex from Labour after seven seats changed hands and took Northumberland from no overall control.
Dudley - where Labour and the Tories were practically neck and neck - went to the Tories with a massive cull of red seats. Conservatives now have 46 seats, almost double Labour's 24.
Labour sources declined to comment on reshuffle claims but those under-threat include Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Housing Secretary Thangham Debbonaire and Shadow Commons Leader Valerie Vaz.
Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green is also thought to be in the crosshairs, while former Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and ex-Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn are big beasts tipped for a return to the frontline.
But one Shadow Minister questioned calls for a return of frontbenchers from a previous era.
They told the Mirror: “What would be the point of that? What's the offer?”
Leaping to Ms Dodds' defence, they said sacking her would be “utterly, utterly ridiculous”.
They added: “Anneliese Dodds is the most masterful across her economic brief.
“She's a stellar performer. The amount of work she gets through is just phenomenal.”
The bleak results triggered another round of bitter Labour infighting – jus over a year after Mr Starmer took the helm from Jeremy Corbyn.
Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott – a close ally of the former leader – said the Hartlepool loss was a "crushing" defeat.
"Not possible to blame Jeremy Corbyn for this result. Labour won the seat twice under his leadership. Keir Starmer must think again about his strategy," she tweeted.
Hard left MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle fired a broadside at Mr Starmer, tweeting: “Good to see valueless flag waving and suit wearing working so well... or not?”
The Shadow Cabinet meets on Monday where the current party chief is expected to face criticism of his strategy and calls to give frontbenchers great freedom – loosening control from the Leader's office.
Jeremy Corbyn said Labour needed to offer a "bolder vision" to voters as a backlash built from within the party.
The former leader tweeted: ""Tory gains are bad news for jobs, the environment & public services for the many not the few. With millions not voting, these results show a loss of hope.
"We must offer a bolder vision to transform people’s lives & give them the confidence to strive for a more equal world."
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey slammed Keir Starmer over the results, saying: “People don’t know what his vision is. People don’t know what Labour stand for any more.”
Former Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon said the party needs to "urgently change direction". "We are going backwards in areas we need to be winning," he tweeted.
"Labour's leadership needs to urgently change direction. It should start by championing the popular policies in our recent manifestos."
A Shadow Minister said: “The reality is, and we have got to be very clear about this, the agenda set out in the policy offer for 2017 and 2019 was popular.
“I know it's not a popular thing to say it was popular, but it damn well was.”
The pro-Jeremy Corbyn Momentum group tweeted: “The leadership are reacting to this disaster by promising 'more change' – but over the last year we've gone backwards.
“It's time to change direction, not double down on a failed strategy.
“In order to rebuild, the leadership must build a coalition with the left on transformative policy, return to community organising, and empower members to shape the future of our party.”
Labour peer Lord Adonis told the BBC: "This is potentially curtains for the Labour Party unless it's possible to turn the situation around."
The peer, who served in Government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said "in a No Man's Land in politics you simply get cut down", adding: "Whatever you think about Boris Johnson, people know what he stands for.
"He couldn't have been clearer about what he thinks in terms of Brexit and the future of the country.
"What does Labour stand for? That is the big void at the centre of politics at the moment."
Shadow Cabinet Minister Steve Reed told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "The breakdown of trust between the British people and the Labour Party was all too clear to see in December 2019.
“Now we've started to make change, it clearly hasn't gone fast enough or far enough and that's what we'll need to do next.
“We have an electoral mountain to climb – it feels to me like we're still in the foothills.
“We're going in the right direction but we have to now, at pace, go much, much, much faster."
