Mission accomplished: a triumphant Ukip has achieved its goals and may as well pack up shop. The hard-right populist party is – in the words of its former leadership frontrunner Steven Woolfe – “in a death spiral”. Fresh from being literally hospitalised by the party’s internal divisions, Woolfe has marched out of this increasingly disorderly rabble. The party has been deprived of its toxic but effective figurehead, Nigel Farage, whose new pet project is spinning for Donald Trump; and with no clear unifying mission or leader, the party’s internal factions are abandoning any semblance of discipline. The party always represented a mishmash: some are rightwing libertarians, others anti-immigration national conservatives, others Tories-in-exile, others interested in forging a working-class rightwing populism. They are squabbling housemates wondering if they really belong under the same roof.

But hey, a flailing Ukip shouldn’t mourn. It helped engineer the EU referendum in concert with Tory backbenchers, and now its founding purpose has been achieved. But more importantly, the Conservative party has been Ukip-ised. Farage praised Theresa May’s “remarkable speech”, crowing that his party had “changed the centre of gravity of British politics. Virtually everything she said in that speech are things that I’ve said to the Ukip conference over the course of the last five or six years”. He is right to brag. A party that won only one parliamentary seat last year has effectively captured the commanding heights of the Tory party.

We now have a Conservative government pursuing a harsh and chaotic Brexit; demonising its critics as unpatriotic internal enemies; pursuing inflammatory anti-immigration ruses, such as floating the idea of drawing up lists of foreign workers; and pledging to expand selection in schools. If Ukip is dead, long live Ukip.

Ukip could still live on in some form, of course. It could be the option on the ballot paper for those who want to hold May’s feet to the fire: that’s why she’s been so keen to stress that Brexit means Brexit. Under the previous leadership, Labour made a miscalculation in believing that Ukip’s rise represented a fracturing of the right that would benefit them. In the end, it was Labour’s traditional coalition that fractured most lethally: in the direction of the SNP, Greens and Ukip.

Ukip’s turmoil certainly does underline the necessity for Labour to present a clear, coherent, inspiring vision. May’s alarmingly high poll rating is only partly explained by Labour’s decline: erstwhile Ukip voters flocking to the Tories is another reason. There are working-class Ukip voters who tell you they’d never vote Tory; May’s liberal use of “working class” is an attempt to address that. A significant chunk of working-class Britain feels alienated from Labour. That has to be addressed with a clear vision and a message communicated in language that resonates with people outside the political bubble. These are febrile times and Labour has an opportunity. If the party blows it, it won’t only be the Tories who are Ukip-ised – it will be a fate that befalls the whole country.