Jeremy Corbyn must have gone to bed this week saying his nightly prayers to Lady Hale for saving his bacon. The President of the Supreme Court’s sensational ruling gave him the perfect cover to call an early halt to Labour’s conference which had been eclipsed by bitter divisions over his own future. For until the court’s ruling, the Brighton conference had been dominated by the failed coup to strip Tom Watson, deputy leader, of his role by Momentum’s, Jon Lansman.
The Economist’s Bagehot column summed up the squabble rather well: “The fact that the balance of power is so delicate means that the struggle can only become more bitter in the months to come. Mr Corbyn’s rise divided the party like nothing since the second world war. His eventual departure will divide it even further.”
