Labour has confirmed the departure of a key aide to Jeremy Corbyn amid claims of in-fighting within the Labour leader's top team.

A spokesman said Neale Coleman had resigned "because of the pressures and demands of the job on his family life".

The executive director of policy and rebuttal was reported by The Times to have disagreed with the direction of the party under Mr Corbyn.

It said he had clashed with Seumas Milne, the Guardian journalist who is the leader's strategy and communications chief.

A party spokesman said Mr Coleman - seen as a moderating influence by MPs - remained "in discussions about continuing to work with Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Leader's team in an advisory and support role".

The appointment of Mr Coleman - a respected senior City Hall adviser to Ken Livingstone who was retained by Boris Johnson to oversee the 2012 Olympics - had been applauded by moderate MPs who said he "commands widespread respect".

MPs bemoaned his apparent departure, taking to social media to express their frustration.

Graham Jones, the MP for Hyndburn and a Corbyn critic, described Mr Coleman as "a good guy, competent and the one good appointment Jeremy made".

It came as one of the prominent MPs sacked by Mr Corbyn in a reshuffle for disloyalty warned the party needed to be more "in touch" with all sections of the population.

Ex-shadow culture secretary Michael Dugher spoke out after The Guardian published leaked internal Labour analysis suggesting new recruits to the party were disproportionately "high status city dwellers".

Up to 80% of the membership has been socially categorised using a system called Mosaic, the newspaper said.

Almost 20,000 ranked as "city prosperity" have joined up since the general election, an increase of 119%, the figures are said to show.

By contrast, the number from families "who have to budget to make ends meet" rose only from 5,966 to 7,101.

Those deemed "vintage value" - people over 70 who tend to live alone in social or private housing - went up 41%.

Although total membership was up 194,349 on 2014 to a 17-year high of 388,103, "long-term homeowners from urban areas (particularly inner city area) who have high levels of disposable income" tended to be overrepresented.

"Those who are under-represented tend to be either young singles/families who rent properties on a short-term basis and require financial assistance or those who live in rural communities," it was reported to conclude.

Mr Dugher said: "New members very welcome but important we are in touch with the country."

Former chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party Lord Watts has warned that the leadership should pay less attention to a "London-centric hard-left political class who sit around in their £1 million mansions eating their croissants at breakfast and seeking to lay the foundations for a socialist revolution".

And backbench MP John Mann said the party should impose a "wealth tax" of £1,000 a year on well-heeled members.

Mr Corbyn, who is MP for Islington North, has faced accusations that his agenda is designed to appeal to metropolitan voters in areas like north London.