When — or, for those of a cautious disposition, if — Labour loses the election this Thursday, it will be blamed on Jeremy Corbyn. In one respect that will be an absolutely reasonable conclusion. Invariably the unsuccessful party leader — like the manager of a losing football team — is the person held responsible. In Corbyn’s case this would be more than merely a reflex action: he is, according to polls, the most unpopular opposition leader to have contested a British general election.

But in another respect, the responsibility for such a defeat (which would be Labour’s fourth in a row, equalling the record set by the party in 1979-1992) will rest not with the hard-left, but with the so-called centrists. It is they,