Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has been sacked as party chairman in the aftermath of election results.

It comes as Labour suffered heavy losses in local elections in England, losing control of a host of councils and suffering defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in the Hartlepool by-election – the first time the constituency has gone blue since its inception in the 1970s.

The sacking signals cracks at the top of the party, with rows over who was to blame for the election strategy.

Speaking on Friday, leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was “bitterly disappointed” with the results and vowed to take responsibility and to fix Labour’s election woes.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the decision to remove Angela Rayner as Labour’s chairman and campaigns chief was a “cowardly avoidance of responsibility”.

The senior party figure tweeted: “Keir Starmer said yesterday that he took full responsibility for the election result in Hartlepool and other losses.

“Instead today he’s scapegoating everyone apart from himself.

“This isn’t leadership, it’s a cowardly avoidance of responsibility.”

Richard Burgon MP, former shadow justice secretary and prominent left-wing critic, has called for a bespoke party conference to produce a plan to reverse Labour’s polling fortunes in the aftermath of the losses.

“Instead of making progress in the key areas we need to win back, at these elections we’ve gone backwards – this can’t go on,” he tweeted.

“There should now be a special Labour Party conference where the leadership outlines its plan to turn this around and seeks the confidence of the party for it.”