Labour is "in despair" over Ed Miliband's leadership of the party, but reports that he's likely to face a pre-election coup should not be believed, according to a senior party MP.
"Labour MPs are telling each other it's all dreadful – they're all ringing each other and telling dreadful stories," the MP told BuzzFeed News. "Things seem to have got gloomier this week."
The politician attributed the negativity to two recent polls which highlighted the challenge to Miliband, who was forced to deny his leadership was under threat on Thursday.
"It's a combination of the psychology of getting 29% [of the national vote share] in the Ashcroft poll, and the YouGov poll that said Miliband [was] more unpopular than Clegg," the MP explained.
The politician dismissed reports that Labour MPs are in the early stages of a planning a coup as idle chatter, however, saying a pre-election leadership challenge from potential contenders Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, and Chuka Umunna was unlikely, although all three are all thought to be scoping out potential supporters.
"[Burnham's] doing contingency planning," said the MP. "I don't think he's going to launch a coup unless things go wrong before the election.
"Ed's office is paranoid [about Burnham]. They're not so paranoid about Chuka, but he's doing it as well."
The Labour MP attributed some of the anger to Wednesday's decision to give a key election campaign role to Lucy Powell MP, who previously served as Miliband's deputy chief of staff. "Rather than stabilising things, if anything the mini-reshuffle has made labour MPs think he's retreating into his inner circle."
But the MP said polls conducted by the peer Lord Ashcroft in key marginal constituencies were largely positive for Labour, meaning an unpopular Miliband could still become prime minister.
"It's weirdest election ever," the Labour MP concluded.