Twenty-four hours ago, Jess Phillips was complaining that the problem with the Labour party leadership hustings was that it was impossible to articulate the struggle the party faces in answers of 40 seconds, as are the rather peculiar rules.

And yet, having now pulled out of the race, in the form of a two-minute video, she has summed up the party’s problems in eight word-perfect seconds.

“I truly believe that if we don’t speak to the country on their terms, and not just ours, then we won’t be able to make the gains we need to win an election.”

And thus were summed up the last four bizarre years, which already feel like an impossibly bad dream, with consequences for the country, and the party, that were once considered beyond either’s very worst nightmares.

But with her second sentence, specifically the reason why she is standing down, she clearly articulated the problem the Labour Party is going to find it very difficult indeed to solve.

“The Labour Party will need a candidate that can unite all parts of our movement: the union movement, the members, the elected representatives... and at this time, that person isn’t me.”

Ms Phillips is right on both counts. But her rightness cannot be reconciled with itself. She is right that the party needs to remove itself from its incessant navel-gazing. It needs to understand how it came to be in the unimaginably woeful state it is in. It needs to work out how it managed to become repellent to northern working-class voters and the lives they lead. (It could start by rewatching the mad Palestinian flag-waving sessions from its own conference).

The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Show all 8 1 /8 The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Keir Starmer The former director of public prosecutions undoubtedly has announced that he is standing for the leadership. He is highly-regarded by both left-wingers and centrists in the party. As Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, he played a key role in the party’s eventual backing of a second referendum. Before becoming an MP, he was a human rights lawyer - conducting cases in international courts including the European Court of Human Rights. Launching his bid, Starmer said that Labour must listen to the public on how to change "restore trust in our party as a force for good." A YouGov poll places him comfortably in the lead as the preferred candidate of 36% of party members EPA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Lisa Nandy Wigan MP Lisa Nandy has announced she wil stand for the leadership. In a letter to the Wigan Post she said she wanted to bring Labour "home" to voters in its traditional strongholds who have abandoned the party. Nandy went on to say that she understands "that we have one chance to win back the trust of people in Wigan, Workington and Wrexham." A YouGov poll shows that Nandy is the first preference for 6% of partymembers. Getty The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rebecca Long Bailey A key ally of the current left-wing leadership of the party, the Salford & Eccles MP is viewed in some quarters as the natural successor to Mr Corbyn and describes herself as a “proud socialist”. Highly regarded by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. She won also won plaudits for her performance filling in for Corbyn both at prime minister’s questions and during the general election debates. The shadow business secretary grew up by Old Trafford football ground and began her working life serving at the counter of a pawn shop. Launching her leadership bid, Long Bailey said the party needs to make the positive case for immigration as a "positive force." She also broke with Corbyn over Trident, saying "If you have a deterrent you have to be prepared to use it." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Angela Rayner - Deputy leadership Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has joined the contest for deputy leadership of the party. After ruling herself out of running for the leadership, the Ashton-under-Lynne MP launched her bid for deputy warning that Labour faces the "biggest challenge" in its history and must "win or die." She is close with leadership contender Rebecca Long Bailey PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rosena Allin-Khan - Deputy leadership Shadow sport minister Rosena Allin-Khan said Labour need to listen with "humility" to lost voters as she launched her bid for the deputy leadership. Writing in The Independent, the MP for Tooting refelcted: "We shouldn’t have ignored the warning signs in Scotland, and now we’ve paid the price in northern England, across the midlands and in Wales." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Dawn Butler - Deputy leadership Shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler was first to announce her bid for the deputy leadership. The Brent Central MP has served in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet since 2016 PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Ian Murray - Deputy leadership Labour's only MP in Scotland said that the architects of the party's "catastrophic failure" in the December election can not be allowed to lead the party forward PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Richard Burgon - Deputy leadership Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon is standing as a continuity candidate, flaunting his loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn and saying it is wrong to blame the current leader for the election defeat PA

But no Labour Party leader can hope to fulfil all of the things Ms Phillips says they must do. It is impossible to make the party electable again and gain the support of the members. Because it is a straightforward statement of fact that the members do not want the party to be electable. Even now, a YouGov poll of members reports that Jeremy Corbyn is the members favourite leader of all time. He towers above Clement Attlee. Blair, naturally, is a distant last.

A conventional wisdom has now emerged that Labour must unify, that its warring factions must find a peace. But it is impossible to see the settlement of such a peace. The members, which is to say, for the most part, the pro-Corbyn wing of the party, have absolutely nothing to offer. They have had their fun, drunkenly joyriding the car, but now that it has been wrapped around the electoral lamppost and the police called, no good can come of placating these people, but that is what all leadership hopefuls must do.

Jeremy Corbyn’s opinions and those who share them are of no value whatsoever to the Labour Party. They are the fast lane to oblivion. This is as true in 1983, as it was in 2019, as it was at any arbitrary point in British political history in the 150 years.

The tragedy, of course, is that Ms Phillips is right. Labour has trodden itself so deep in the mud it is unlikely that whoever wins this contest will be the one to drag it back to the daylight. The best hope for this next short era – the party’s next self-inflicted spell in the wilderness – is that it finds a kind of Kinnock of the hour.

But in the medium to long-term, no good can possibly come of accommodating those for whom no amount of failure can ever be too much.

Ms Phillips cannot be Labour leader because she is correct that she has nothing to offer those who are so desperate to lose.

The next Labour leader will have to lead a party that has embraced a politics that rejects markets. The trouble is, in the end, democracy is a market. And for those who think themselves above the mucky business of buying and selling themselves, there is a familiar outcome.