The country has been plunged into chaos and turmoil, the pound is plummeting, we’re in a political power vacuum, the people are divided and the Conservatives are in disarray – so what better time to try to tear the Labour party apart too? It’s no great surprise that the Labour MPs who have been sniping and undermining Jeremy Corbyn ever since he became party leader are now trying to oust him. But what is astounding is that they have chosen this moment – a time for unity and clear-headedness – to launch such an attempt.

What is it that they think will happen? If they force another leadership contest, he will win again – and they will have wasted months on an irrelevant internal battle at a crucial time.

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There is no legal mechanism by which Corbyn can be removed – and that’s why the current attempts to destabilise his leadership with a vote of no confidence come over as profoundly undemocratic, essentially a coup. Those party members banging on about needing a more charismatic leader have no alternative candidate, no programme and no significant support among the Labour party membership which elected Corbyn in the first place. In this context, attempts to oust Corbyn right now seem like an epic strop at a time when, bluntly, their constituents and their country desperately need them to think bigger and better.

Thinking better would mean engaging with the drastically changed political landscape, in which voters are utterly turned off by style over substance, polish over policy. It would mean understanding that the Brexit vote was driven in no small part by a section of the population feeling locked out and left behind by decades of hardship and economic neglect that started with Thatcherism and continued with New Labour’s Tory-lite policies. It would mean accepting that the support for Corbyn, against all odds, represents a connection with his anti-austerity platform. It would mean recognising the public hunger for policies such as renationalisation of utilities, support for the welfare state, investment in housing and infrastructure and policies designed to tackle devastating wealth inequalities. That, after all, is why Corbyn won a landslide leadership victory. That is why membership of the Labour party is currently at record levels. That is why, when Corbyn tours the country, there are still more people crowding to see him than there is room available.

If Labour failed to persuade its traditional heartlands to vote to remain in the EU, it is to no small degree a reflection of the party haemorrhaging working-class votes for some time – and not just in the past few months of the referendum campaign. Progressives feel devastated by the outcome of the EU referendum vote and what’s to follow, which is exactly why it is now necessary to read the signs, formulate policy and find ways to reconnect with the electorate instead of falling for the much easier option of pinning the blame on a scapegoat.

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In other words, even if the party succeeded in removing its elected leader, the problems would still remain. Addressing the grievances that people feel, the daily worry over wages, jobs, housing and access to public services, the daily, panic-inducing struggle to survive while being knocked ever-backwards, requires a genuine political alternative – a credible policy alternative and not just a leader in a nice suit.

If party members have concerns about Corbyn’s leadership style, his presentation skills – and there is no doubt that some of these concerns are valid – then it is now up to them to help him, amplify the message, unite to strengthen both the leader and the policies he is putting forward and to push the progressive politics that the country so desperately needs at a time when the far right is insurgent. At such a critical, disruptive and divided moment in Britain, the Labour party needs to step up and reach out to its voters, not turn inwards and implode.