Labour has come under fire for sacking its shadow Brexit minister, Dianne Hayter, for likening the “bunker mentality” in Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle to the “last days of Hitler”.

Lady Hayter criticised the Labour leadership’s response to last week’s Panorama exposé on the handling of antisemitism complaints, saying it had “stopped receiving into the inner group any information which suggests that things are not going the way you want.”

She also accused Mr Corbyn’s aides of refusing to give key information to Labour’s National Executive Committee, as well as the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is investigating the party.

The peer was stripped of her shadow cabinet role but will remain as the party’s deputy leader in the House of Lords, which is an elected position.

A Labour spokesperson said Lady Hayter’s remarks – made at a meeting of centre-left group Labour First – were “deeply offensive” and “grossly insensitive to Jewish staff in particular”.

They added: “To compare the Labour leader and Labour Party staff working to elect a Labour government to the Nazi regime is truly contemptible.”

Others condemned Lady Hayter’s sacking, including Labour’s Ilford North MP, Wes Streeting, who told the Guardian that it was a “gross over-reaction to a comment that was actually about Jeremy Corbyn’s bunker mentality”.

He added: “This sacking only reinforces her point. The speed of this sacking shows that Labour’s leader is quick to act to protect his feelings, but slow to act against racists. The double standards are extraordinary.

“Dianne Hayter remains the elected deputy leader of the Labour group in the House of Lords, regardless of Jeremy Corbyn’s purge.”

Luke Akehurst, the secretary of Labour First, defended Lady Hayter, adding: “It isn’t a bunker, it is the last days of Saigon.

“It’s like they are trying to get on the helicopters trying to kick off the incumbents in these parliamentary seats, because they know their days of control are numbered.”