As Labour Party MPs respond to their disastrous local election results, they should look across the Atlantic and reflect upon the legacy of former US president Joe Biden.

His presidency was a success in domestic terms, with the United States recovering faster than any other wealthy nation from the pandemic and bequeathing an expanding economy with an impressive job-creation record. He doubled the number of Americans with access to affordable healthcare.

Yet his party let him selfishly cling to power when it was obvious to voters he was no longer fit to serve. Then it was defeated by a repulsive hard-right populist, who overcame sordid links to an attack on democracy by weaponising migration and skilfully riding waves of public concern over the cost of living.

Now Labour faces a similar challenge: to defeat a self-serving charlatan, the man responsible for an act of great national self-harm as the architect of Brexit. Even the most dunderheaded backbencher should see the significance of this fight ahead of them after Nigel Farage’s latest political party triumphed in the English local elections.

We can bicker over the biggest losers last week. But there is no doubt about the winner, even as the political map of Britain changed into a confusing mosaic of competing colours in a country stuck with an anachronistic electoral system. And history will judge this government – like Biden’s administration – through the prism of its successor if it hands power to the poisonous forces of hard-right populism.

So Labour MPs pondering Sir Keir Starmer’s future should not be deluded. They will not be........

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