Labour may be forced to leave the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) and revive the Rwanda deportation plan or risk being "destroyed" by Nigel Farage.
One Labour MP has warned his party could be taken out by Reform UK unless they get a grip on the small boat crisis.
The MP, who wants Sir Keir Starmer to embrace more radical solutions to end the crisis, said his party could be "destroyed" by Reform at next year's local elections and would prompt the Prime Minister to scrap the ECHR or revive the Rwanda plan.
The MP told The i: "Rather than thinking what do we want to achieve and therefore how do we make that work in this framework [of the ECHR and international law], we're taking the framework as the starting point and making incremental changes, and it's the same across all policy areas.
"It means voters see us as defenders of the status quo."
Another Labour MP wished Sir Keir could be more like Mr Farage, complaining about the Prime Minister's lack of relatability with people.
They said: "Mr Farage has more followers on TikTok than all other MPs combined.
"We can't afford not to have a connection with the electorate like that.
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Sir Keir Starmer could be forced to axe the ECHR
| GETTY"Politics is not about entertainment, but you have to have someone who can entertain a bit."
Fears have been expressed among Labour peers that Sir Keir Starmer's reshuffle will weaken the Government and the second phase will not kick on like he is hoping.
One MP said: "The start of phase two could have gone better. I'm hopeful we'll see the results of the personnel changes soon, but it's not happened yet."
Another believes that some ministers "just aren't up to the job".
They continued: "I know he's seen as a bit mad, but the longer I have spent in this place, the more I understand what Dominic Cummings was talking about.
"There just seems very little that can be done [in Government] without serious changes."
Others believe Labour's ability to govern is not being impacted by its personnel but by officials.
A Government source said: "When we were in opposition, we were really well-drilled, we all spoke all the time and were really connected to each other.
Labour MPs have warned that Nigel Farage could storm into No10
| REUTERS"Then we arrived in Government and plugged into the Civil Service and seemingly lost all that straight away."
Newly appointed Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Darren Jones, insisted this reshuffle was not an attempt to trump Reform UK's lead in the polls.
Mr Jones told GB News: "No, this is about making sure that we've got brilliant colleagues in brilliant jobs, making sure that the Government machine is really driving delivery of the public's priorities.
"The Prime Minister's priorities are the public's priorities, so it's about tackling the cost of living crisis and making people get better wages at work. It's about getting public services back on their feet, with a predominant focus on the NHS."