When John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor of the exchequer, told me that we are “well past” crisis point, he was referring to the elemental state of austerity. The burning impact of public spending cuts, reported by the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights as “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous,” slowly cleaving apart the ice shelf of British life. A few weeks after that conversation McDonnell’s words are additionally prescient, his own party juddered by crisis.

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Jeremy Corbyn did what no one else could. When Labour held a leadership election in 2015 he didn’t just get on the ballot, he won. Unremarkable in and of itself but for his socialist politics.

For years under Tony Blair, Labour was ‘New.’ It shifted to the centre, became a party of justice (“Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”), introduced private contracts to the public sector through PFI and engaged in illegal foreign wars.

The left of the party was marginalised to a colourful fringe that repeatedly rebelled against Blair, and his successor Gordon Brown, in parliamentary votes and delivered speeches at protests like ‘Stop The War’ – the UK’s best attended political demonstration of the 21st Century.

That was the space occupied by Corbyn and his buddy John McDonnell. Twice McDonnell had tried and failed to get on the ballot of the Labour leader race, in 2007 and 2010. After a heart attack in 2014 it looked like a “quiet” retirement and “drift” into obscurity. A slim ration of notoriety from the time he protested Heathrow expansion by lifting up the Commons’ ceremonial mace. He is insistent he will not run for leader again.

Corbyn, however, was convinced to give it a crack by McDonnell after the Conservatives secured their first majority for 23 years in the 2015 general election. On acceptance, McDonnell set about gathering enough support from other MPs to get his friend on the ballot, framed as a parting gift to the party’s old way.

A groundswell of grassroots activism and accompanying members into the party from pressure group Momentum secured Corbyn the leadership, as it is a vote by Labour members that decides its new leader. Socialism had brought its weight to bear, leveraging instruments of democracy to its advantage.

Since, Labour has advocated a programme of nationalisation, increased public expenditure through taxation and a reduction in tax avoidance as well as environmental and worker protections. The party has also faced extensive criticism for its handling of anti-Semitism within its own ranks and Brexit.

In the wake of 2016’s referendum on membership of the European Union, Corbyn’s shadow cabinet collapsed on a wave of centrist resignations. It precipitated a leadership challenge that, in the end, the incumbent saw off with an increased majority. McDonnell describes the “coup” as “quite exciting”, with laughter, but also an opportunity to bring through a new crop of promising characters.

There has been little room for the acolytes of Blair and Brown in the years that followed, particularly after the party’s performance in the 2017 snap election. A massacre was expected. Instead Labour increased its vote share by the largest margin since the end of the second world war.

Take over complete, base solidified and no path to career progression for an enterprising Blairite to pursue.

Which brings us to now, the heady and warm winter of early 2019 where institutions begin to splinter apart. At the time of writing, eight MPs have resigned from the Labour party. Far from the caricature of the hard man on the left, McDonnell has been acting as the glue and go-between for his party’s leadership and dissenting moderates. And yet, one feels the strength of the bond is yet to be subject to maximum stress.