Labour’s only Scottish MP has confirmed he will not re-join Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet after the Labour leader kicked elections to his frontbench into the long grass.
Former shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray called on Mr Corbyn to grasp the “olive branch” MPs were offering.
But he was accused of holding the Labour leader to “ransom” by a former Scottish Labour MP .
Read more: Kezia Dugdale accuses Jeremy Corbyn of trying to undermine her
High-profile Labour politicians are under pressure from their parliamentary colleagues not to take a job in the shadow cabinet unless Mr Corbyn agrees to elections.
A Labour source said that MPs were being encouraged not to become ''scabs".
"They are being told that if they do become scabs they won't get the votes of their colleagues if there are shadow cabinet elections in the future," he said.
But a number are thought to be willing to serve, including former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and London MP Keir Starmer.
A reshuffle is expected after the party’s annual conference, being held in Liverpool.
Earlier this month MPs voted overwhelmingly to bring back elections to the party's frontbench.
The policy was scrapped in the last parliament under former leader Ed Miliband.
But a decision late on Sunday means that the idea will not now be discussed by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee until an “awayday" at the end of November.
Any reforms agreed at that stage would also have to be followed by a consultation and a vote at a special conference.
Read more: Kezia Dugdale accuses Jeremy Corbyn of trying to undermine her
Mr Murray said that he would not return without elections.
"What the Labour Party needs now is to come together,” he said.
“MPs like me are holding out the olive branch of going back to shadow cabinet elections in order to get unity. Jeremy should gasp that olive branch with both hands as a real show of intent to unite the party."
Former Labour MP Ian Davidson attacked the call for elections as a “blatant device to flood the shadow cabinet with MPs unsupportive of Jeremy Corbyn."
He called on Mr Murray to take up his old job regardless.
“His response should be to accept, with gratitude, any opportunity offered to serve by the party leader,” he said.
“He should do so without attempting to hold Jeremy to ransom by setting factional conditions.”
Corbyn’s aides are understood to have pleaded with Edinburgh MP Mr Murray to return.
In an interview with The Herald last week he hit out at Mr Corbyn, accusing him of being “all over the place” on the idea of a coalition at Westminster with the SNP.
A number of other former members of the shadow cabinet have ruled out a return, including former shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander.
Read more: Kezia Dugdale accuses Jeremy Corbyn of trying to undermine her
But former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said that she is 'not opposed' to taking up a post.
Meanwhile, there was anger among MPs after Mr Corbyn suggested that 'most' of them would be safe from de-selection.
One said: "How can, in one breath, Jeremy talk about uniting the party but in the other hint of deselections?
"That's not unity but stoking disunity. Coming together has to start at the top with actions - not just words."
Mr Corbyn has launched a campaign against grammar schools in England, in a bid to unite many on the Labour benches who are categorically opposed to selective education.
More than 50 MPs walked out of Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet at the start of the summer in protest at what they said was his lacklustre EU referendum campaign.
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