For the Labour Party, and the praetorian guard of well-paid strategists surrounding Jeremy Corbyn, it has been an excruciating few months. The anti-semitism crisis has lumbered on and Labour’s stance on Brexit seems increasingly confused, with shadow ministers at odds publicly with the leadership. Earlier this autumn, Corbyn’s team hoped that a trip to Brussels to say hello to Michel Barnier, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, might lift the gloom. As they arrived at the EU Commission’s headquarters, the group realised that none of them had the cash to pay the taxi driver. “Has anybody got any euros?” asked one aide. A frustrated Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s director of strategy and communications, was recorded muttering: “There’s no end of problems ...”

It was a rare public