While many people have been dissecting the power struggles and growing fissures within the Labour party, it might instead be timely to concentrate on what their senior figures all have in common. Behind the division and fratricidal scheming, they are united by the same raw desire to preserve their party at all costs. They seem to place its existence above all other considerations.

This was made clear in Angela Rayner’s speech to the centre-left Mainstream group on Tuesday, in which she warned that the ‘very survival of the Labour party is at stake’. While her speech has been seen as part of her longer-term plan to usurp Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, those words betrayed an awkward truth. Rayner appears to have the same priority as her leader: to prevent Labour fragmenting and to staunch the flow of support towards the Greens, which now caters to both the hard left and the Muslim vote.

Rayner appears to have the same priority as her leader: to prevent Labour fragmenting and to staunch the flow of support towards the Greens

Rayner appears to have the same priority as her leader: to prevent Labour fragmenting and to staunch the flow of support towards the Greens

This fundamental urge........

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