General Election 2015: Ed Miliband 'Has To Resign Today'

Ed Miliband will be forced to stand down as Labour leader today and 'won't even make until lunchtime', according to a party source.

"Ed has to resign. Everyone here accepts that," a Labour source told the New Statesman.

Other Labour sources told Sky News that Mr Miliband was in an untenable position and would have to resign.

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The bookies offered odds of 5/1 of a demand for Mr Miliband to quit before 7am on Friday, with odds of 7/4 that it would happen by noon and 4/6 after noon.

The Opposition leader held on to his own seat but conceded the party had suffered a "disappointing and difficult night"

With David Cameron on course to remain in No 10, Mr Miliband made no immediate comment on his own future as he prepared to return to Westminster to assess the scale of the electorate's failure to back his pitch for government.

But he appeared to come close to conceding that he would not be taking power.

"This has clearly been a very disappointing and difficult night for the Labour Party. We have not made the gains we wanted in England and Wales, and in Scotland we have seen a surge of nationalism overwhelm our party," he said after being comfortably re-elected with an increased majority in Doncaster North.

With the SNP heading for a landslide in Scotland at the expense of Labour, former Cabinet Minister Tessa Jowell told the BBC: "You can't lay all this on Ed Miliband.

"What has happened in Scotland to Labour has not just happened in the last three of four years.

"We do not need a new leader and this is not the time to talk about whether we need a new leader or not."

But Jack Straw, another former Cabinet Minister in the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown years, said Ed Miliband should consider his position as Labour leader after presiding over a "depressing" performance in the General Election.

Asked if Mr Miliband would have to resign, he told Sky News: "It is for Mr Miliband to make up his mind about his future.

"My advice to everybody, particularly against what is depressing news, is to take a deep breath, to go to bed and then spend two or three days assessing where we go next."

Bookmakers Paddy Power opened betting on the first Labour MP to publicly call for Ed Miliband's head, with Rochdale's Simon Danczuk favourite at 7/2, followed by David Watts (St Helens North) and David Lammy (Tottenham) on 8/1 and former leadership challenger Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) on 25/1.

With the loss of Douglas Alexander north of the border in Paisley and Renfrewshire South, Ed Miliband faces the post-election landscape without one of his most senior lieutenants alongside him in Parliament.

Despite backing David Miliband for the Labour leadership, Mr Alexander has been a constant presence, alongside Ed Balls, around the Labour leader. And he has been a key player in the party's campaigns for many years, co-ordinating the successful 2001 campaign and leading the doomed 2010 effort for Gordon Brown.