Jeremy Corbyn faces latest challenge as Tom Watson holds emergency talks with union leaders

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Tom Watson is to hold emergency talks with trade union leaders after a fresh attempt to persuade Jeremy Corbyn to step down failed.

At a one-to-one meeting at Westminster, Mr Watson told Mr Corbyn he could not carry on as party leader without the backing of the party's MPs who voted in favour of a vote of no confidence in him, Labour sources said.

Mr Corbyn was said to have responded by making clear he had no intention of leaving.

Sources said union leaders had "reached out" to Mr Watson to see if they could find a negotiated settlement, with talks expected to take place on Tuesday morning.

At the weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party at Westminster, Mr Watson told MPs: "It is the last throw of the dice."

Union leaders, who are the biggest donors to the party, have been significant backers of Mr Corbyn as leader since his election last September.

Unite leader Len McCluskey reconfirmed his support for him during an interview with Andrew Marr on Sunday. He said: "This has been a political lynching of a decent man – undermined, humiliated, attacked in order to push him out.

"The truth is, it’s failed – the coup has failed. Jeremy Corbyn is made of sterner stuff. He is a man of steel who has made it clear that he will not step down."

On Sunday, sources close to Mr Corbyn said they had blocked Mr Watson from speaking to him because they had a "duty of care" towards him.

The unnamed source told the Observer Mr Watson's aides want him alone with the embattled leader so "he can jab his finger at him".

"We are not letting that happen… This is not a one-off. There is a culture of bullying. Maybe it’s a Blairite/Brownite thing", the source added.

It follows a day in which Mr Corbyn issued a defiant video message to his MPs saying he will continue as leader.

He called on party members, MPs and trade unions to "come together now to oppose this Tory government".

Momentum, the grassroots organisation set up to support Mr Corbyn in the wake of his victory, announced on Monday that it had doubled its membership in the week since MPs first challenged their leader.

The group said more than 25,000 people had taken part in pro-Corbyn demonstrations in recent days and they are receiving £11,000 a day in donations to fight any leadership challenge.

Mr Corbyn's shadow business secretary Angela Eagle has announced she will challenge Mr Corbyn for the leadership if he refused to stand down in the coming days.

He lost a vote of "no confidence" cast by Labour MPs in secret ballot last week by a margin of 172-40.

Another high profile MP stood down on Monday, Fabian Hamilton, the party's new shadow Europe minister and one of the most senior Jewish MPs on the front bench who had abstained in the vote last week.

The Leeds North East MP said he was troubled by Mr Corbyn's response to the party's anti-Semitism inquiry and the treatment of Labour MP Ruth Smeeth.