Labour MPs will urge longstanding party members not to desert them if Jeremy Corbyn is crowned leader for the second time this weekend.

Many so-called ’moderate’ MPs will also declare that they won’t split the party if the veteran socialist wins as expected.

One Labour MP said that the message would be "don't quit - won't split".

Mr Corbyn’s team predict he will comfortably win the election, just months after more than 50 members of his shadow cabinet walked out in protest at his handling of the European Union referendum.

Read more: Scottish Labour autonomy reforms blasted as 'cosmetic'

Some Labour MPs fear the result could lead many long-term members to quit the party, worried about a lurch to the left.

To prevent that happening they plan to appeal for them to stay in the party and help build unity.

The call will come amid a growing row over the possible deselection of Labour MPs.

At the weekend the boss of the Unite union, and a key Corbyn ally, Len McCluskey, hinted that the party could try to replace Labour MPs disloyal to the leadership.

Last night a frontbencher in Mr Corbyn’s team Barry Gardiner said that Labour MPs who refuse to unite behind the leader should be "out of the party" in an interview with The House magazine.

Read more: Scottish Labour autonomy reforms blasted as 'cosmetic'

Within hours of voting closing yesterday, Mr Corbyn promised to "wipe the slate clean" and work with his rival Owen Smith and other internal party critics.

But he also demanded an end to "sniping and personal attacks" and warned Labour MPs that they had a responsibility to "respect the leadership".

Mr Corbyn lost a confidence vote among his own MPs by a margin of 172-40 in the Brexit result.

His critics accused him of a half—hearted campaign to stay in the EU.

They point to a poll published just weeks before the vote which suggested that 4 in 10 of Labour supporters did not know the party’s stance on the EU.

On the day millions of people in Labour’s traditional heartlands ignored its call to back a Remain vote.

But Corbyn’s aides insist that the result showed that his qualms about the EU chimed with many Labour voters.

Read more: Scottish Labour autonomy reforms blasted as 'cosmetic'

Yesterday, asked whether he would change in response to criticisms of his leadership style, he told the BBC: “Sadly for everyone, it's the same Jeremy Corbyn."

He also set out his opposition to proposals to return to the electoral college system, under which MPs and unions had a greater say over the choice of a leader.

"I don't think that's a very good way of doing things," he said.

Meanwhile, a key Corbyn supporter, shadow chancellor John McDonnell suggested Mr Corbyn might win with a reduced mandate.

Mr McDonnell predicted that it would be “really tough” to get the 59.5 per cent of the vote achieved last year.

It also emerged that Mr Corbyn’s first wife voted for his rival.

Jane Chapman also told the BBC, that she feared her ex—husband might be “pressured to stay on (as leader) until an obvious successor that has policies that are acceptable to Momentum and the left emerges.”

She added that while her “heart and soul is still very much with what he stands for ... Are the politics of the 1970s relevant to the 21st century, and to post-Brexit Britain?”