Ed Miliband was today forced to deny claims his own MPs were plotting to oust him as pressure on his position intensified.
The Labour leader dismissed as "nonsense" reports of a groundswell of MPs calling for him to stand down.
Despite no obvious leadership rival, some Labour MPs are believed to have lost patience with Mr Miliband and are reported to have circulated a letter calling on him to go.
Reject suggestions he has lost control of his party, Mr Miliband said today: "This is nonsense. My focus, and the Labour party’s focus, is on the country, and the things that matter to the country."
Speaking to the BBC, he added: "There are huge issues that the country faces, issues of why the country doesn’t work for most people. That is what we are determined to change. We are determined to be a one-term opposition that changes that."
His denial claims after Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls insisted the Labour Party was “united” amid growing pressure on Mr Miliband's position.
Andrew Harrop, general secretary of the Labour-supporting Fabian Society think tank, described him as being a "hindrance" to the party.
But he added: "I have not detected any groundswell of support for a leadership change and there is no alternative candidate."
And Damian McBride, a former adviser to Gordon Brown, said he did not know whether claims a letter calling for Mr Miliband to stand down were true.
"I don’t know, and it’s difficult to know because the paranoia that comes out of the Miliband camp is so rank that they will invent plots even when there are none," he told the BBC's Daily Politics.
“But I think the mood is pretty black in Labour, and certainly since the conference. Since party conference the mood has got blacker and these are wild times.”
Mr Miliband last night moved to strengthen his grip on the shadow Cabinet, particularly through the promotion of key ally Lucy Powell, who ran his leadership campaign.
