Jeremy Corbyn was destined to lead the Labour Party to a catastrophic defeat. It just took a little longer than I expected. If he believed that the British would vote for the most radical socialist manifesto in our history, he was sadly deluded. The party has learnt nothing from past defeats: the more it moves to the left, the more people are alienated.

Corbyn and the Corbynites have spoken often of their admiration for the transformative Labour government of Clement Attlee, which won a landslide victory in 1945, created the National Health Service and laid the foundations of the welfare state. But, unlike Corbyn, Attlee was a progressive and a patriot, Winston Churchill’s deputy in a government of national unity, and his economic