The internal debate that the Labour Party has been conducting while selecting the next party leader will have been in vain unless it answers some very hard questions. Why did it go into an election with a leader that many Labour candidates plainly did not believe in as a future prime minister? Why go into that election without a clear position on the major issue of Brexit? Its mistakes enabled Boris Johnson to win a near landslide overall majority of 80 seats – Labour’s gift to him.

Many of the individual items in Jeremy Corbyn’s policy package were valid – indeed Mr Johnson has been busy borrowing some of them – but put together, Labour’s manifesto appeared confused and unrealistic. Two of the three candidates in the election to replace Mr Corbyn as leader, which started this week, have recognised that; the third, Rebecca Long-Bailey, has stood by her belief that Mr Corbyn scored 10 out of 10 as party leader. Loyalty is admirable, but not at the expense of truth. She has good ideas – on the green economy and on corporate governance reform for instance – which will prove an asset in the longer run, whatever role she is to play in Labour’s future.