Labour chiefs beg furious MPs not to oust Jeremy Corbyn as party crashes to worst local election result in 40 years

LABOUR chiefs are tonight begging furious MPs not to try to oust hapless Jeremy Corbyn as the party crashed to its worst local election drubbing in more than 40 years.

The hard left leader became the first Opposition Leader in modern times to LOSE English councillors in his first ballot box test.

In a truly disastrous night, Labour was also pushed into a shock third place in Scotland – its worst result there since 1910.

The deeply split party also lost overall control of the Welsh Assembly.

Only Tooting MP Sadiq Khan’s victory as London Mayor - wrestling the job back from the Tories after Boris Johnson’s eight years in City Hall - saved Mr Corbyn from total humiliation.

Counts were still ongoing late last night after the whole country went to the polls in seven different sets of local and regional elections, dubbed Super Thursday.

One furious veteran Labour MP had already called on his 66-year-old lifelong socialist leader to resign.

Insisting the party “faces a crisis”, backbencher David Winnick called on Mr Corbyn to “decide whether his leadership is helping or hindering the party”, adding: “All the evidence shows that it is not helping”.

Other senior MPs queued up to attack his eight months at the party’s helm.

Mr Corbyn insisted the night was still a triumph because Labour had “hung on” to defy predictions of 150 councillor losses.

Instead, it lost only 25 councillors and overall control of one council, Dudley.

The shaken Islington MP was also forced to insist: “I’m carrying on. Don’t worry about that. I’m fine, I’m very happy”.

Some of Mr Corbyn’s own shadow cabinet members even broke ranks to attack him.

Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said: “I don’t think the public see the UK Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn at the moment as being a credible party of future government in 2020”.

Shadow Justice Secretary Lord Falconer also refused to say Mr Corbyn had passed his first electoral test.

Former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, who has refused to serve him claimed Labour are “going backwards”, adding: “”We should have been absolutely wiping the floor with the Conservative Party”.

And MP Michael Dugher, who was sacked by Mr Corbyn as shadow Transport Secretary, warned accused the party of “putting our fingers in our ears”.

Bookies also predicted the 7/4 favourite option for the next Labour government would not be until 2031.

Even powerful GMB union boss Tim Roache gave Mr Corbyn a year to improve, saying: “”We’re at the stage when we should be winning hundreds of seats.

“Let’s give it a go for a year or so.”

Mr Corbyn’s closest ally, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, told Labour plotters to “put up or shut up”.

MPs told The Sun last night that a coup may still come, but not until after the June 23 referendum.

But Labour deputy leader Tom Watson begged them to give Mr Corbyn more time as he still had the support of the party’s leftwing membership.

Mr Watson said: “It will be very unfair, and unproper, to hang these results on Jeremy Corbyn alone. He needs more time”.

In a further blow to Mr Corbyn, it also emerged shadow home secretary Andy Burnham is considering abandoning his frontbench team to run as mayor of Manchester.

Labour’s dire showing allowed David Cameron’s Conservatives to stem feared heavy midterm losses to just 34 councillors.

Conservatives also won control of Peterborough Council and gained seats in key swing general election seats such as Nuneaton.

Tory aides claimed it was “a very strong performance” for a midterm election and a PM who’s been in Downing St for six years.

Visiting Peterborough, Mr Cameron dubbed it “remarkable that six years into running the country, we still have more councillors than any other party”.

And he branded Labour “so obsessed with their left wing policies” that it had “completely lost touch” with the people it was supposed to represent.

The result was a personal boost for Mr Cameron, who will himself face a leadership challenge if he loses the EU referendum in just seven weeks time.

But yesterday he insisted: “In 48 days whatever the result, our job as Conservatives will be to come together to work as hard as we can for the British people”.

Tory MPs were delighted with Mr Corbyn’s drubbing.

One, Michael Fabricant, tweeted: “This is a fantastic result for #Labour and they must keep #Corbyn as Labour Leader AT ALL COSTS!!!”

Labour’s vote share was down seven points compared to 2012 when the English council seats were last fought.

Then, boss Ed Miliband won more than 500 extra seats.

One Shadow Minister told the Sun: “It’s a nightmare scenario.

“We are heading towards a worse defeat than before but slowly enough for the Labour party to avoid doing anything about it.

“It’s quite clear to anyone who has been knocking on doors that the public don’t want Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister.”

Wales’s Labour boss Carwyn Jones heaped blame for his losses – taking 29 seats from a possible 60 - on shamed Ken Livingstone and Labour’s anti-semitism row.

But ex-London mayor Mr Livingstone blamed “embittered old Blairites” for fanning the row he sparked by claiming Hilter supported Zionism.

Among the final results to come in were the London Assembly elections, in which UKIP won two seats - their first ever in the assembly.