Ed Miliband pleads with fractious Labour MPs for unity ahead of the general election

Miliband insisted return to power was 'within our sights'

Ed Miliband insists Labour is on course for victory at next May's general election despite its near-disaster in last Thursday's by-election in Heywood and Middleton (Getty)

Ed Miliband has pleaded with Labour MPs for “unity and discipline” as he tries to calm his party's jitters over his own performance and the rise of Ukip.

He told a private meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party: “We have had four years of unity. I am not going to let us, seven months before an election, start lapsing into the bad habits of the past.”

The Labour leader insisted the party was on course for victory at next May's general election despite its near-disaster in last Thursday's by-election in Heywood and Middleton, where Ukip cut Labour's 6,000 majority to just over 600.

At the meeting, two Labour MPs, Frank Field and Graham Stringer, criticised Mr Miliband but 14 others rallied behind him.

Mr Field has campaigned for a tougher line on immigration and warned that Ukip threatens to capture some of Labour’s core vote.

Before tonight’s meeting, Mr Stringer said Mr Miliband was “not an asset” on the doorsteps, saying: "They [voters] think he doesn’t understand the problems they are suffering.” He urged Mr Miliband to sack some of his close advisers and bring more experienced figures into his Shadow Cabinet.

Mr Miliband admitted that Labour had hit problems in recent weeks and warned it would have “ups and downs” before the election. “This is not 1997,” he said, referring to Tony Blair’s landslide.

But he insisted the prospect of being a “one-term opposition” and returning to power next May was “absolutely doable” and “within out sights.” He added: “I am not going to let that opportunity slip away.”

The Labour leader said immigration would be one of the five big election issues along with living standards, aspiration, the NHS and sound economic foundations. He claimed that Labour’s attack on Ukip as “more Tory than the Tories” was getting through to voters.

But Jacqui Smith, the former Labour Home Secretary, said: "None of the ‘easy’ responses to Ukip have yet worked – ignore them; talk about talking about immigration more; tell everyone you are listening to them."