Angela Eagle has renewed her call for beleaguered Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to quit for the good of the "party and the country".
The former shadow business secretary is poised to mount a challenge to Mr Corbyn, with ex-shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith also believed to be considering a bid.
As she called on Mr Corbyn to do the "right thing for the party and the country", Ms Eagle added: "Let's face it, the country is in a crisis and we need strong opposition."
She told ITV News. "It's all about Jeremy considering his position and I don't think speculation about anything else is useful."
Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson is continuing to seek a meeting with Mr Corbyn's team to find a way of negotiating a settlement as the crisis engulfing the party shows no sign of abating.
In the last week around 60,000 people have joined Labour with the prospect of taking part in a leadership election.
Momentum, the grassroots movement that supports Mr Corybn, dismissed claims the leader could go after being offered a settlement that would ensure his top priorities were continued under his successor.
James Schneider, a national organiser, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The coup plotters are now flailing about because they have had 10 months to plot this coup and it seems like it has failed.
"Jeremy Corbyn has shown incredible steel in staying there and not falling, and staying there on behalf of the principle of democracy in the party."
Mr Schneider insisted Mr Corbyn would win any fresh contest and insisted the wave of people signing up for Labour membership was mainly supportive of the leader.
"They don't have a candidate who can beat Jeremy Corbyn," he added.
Mr Corbyn spent the morning at a Love Islington, Say No To Hate Crime rally in his north London constituency, where he posed for selfies and chatted with the crowd.
Polling has indicated more than half the members of Britain's biggest trade union want him to quit.
Some 49% of people signed up to Unite want the Labour leader to go immediately while a further 10% believe he should resign before the next general election, according to a poll seen by the Guardian.
Among Labour voters, 61% said he is doing badly in the job, the YouGov Election Data survey found.
Overall, 35% said Mr Corbyn should stay at the helm in the face of overwhelming opposition from MPs, MEPs and politicians in Scotland.
The YouGov poll had a sample size of just 775 voters but will be seized on by opponents as proof that Mr Corbyn's support is not assured on the ground.
It was not commissioned by the union, which has 1.4 million members, and general secretary Len McCluskey was among the first to rally to Mr Corbyn's support as the attempted coup to oust him emerged.
A Unite spokesman said: "Unite's policy is made in 3,500 branches by at least 100,000 activists, by our policy conference and our elected executive council of lay members.
"This democratic procedure is not going to be set aside in favour of an opinion poll conducted by an organisation with a miserable accuracy record of late."
Footage from the rally Mr Corbyn attended appears to show aides trying to hold him back after a journalist shouts questions at him about his future as leader and tells him it looks like he is running away from the media.
The Labour leader turns around and tells the reporter: "If you want to arrange an interview, speak to my press office."
One aide tries to grab hold of his arm, while another says "don't, Jeremy, don't, come on" while manhandling him, before Mr Corbyn turns back and walks off.
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