Can the Labour Party be saved? The more optimistic party members and supporters have until recently believed so. They frequently point to the presence of Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, as the man best positioned to outmanoeuvre Jeremy Corbyn in the name of something more amenable. It was Watson, after all, who played a leading role in getting rid of Tony Blair in 2007.

In contemporary Labour wisdom, Tom Watson always wins. Yet his latest comments – that Labour is at risk of being overrun by “Trotskyist entryists” who are “twisting the arms” of young members – are a sign of Mr Watson’s increasing exasperation with what is happening to his party. Rather than a pre-emptive shot across the bows ahead of yet another factional triumph, these remarks smack of his all but admitting defeat for Labour’s moderate wing – at least for the time being.

Labour may yet be saved as an electoral force, but it is increasingly unlikely to be rescued by one man. Mr Corbyn is set to receive another huge mandate from the Labour selectorate next month, meaning he will almost certainly remain in place until 2020. Labour moderates have run out of options, and Mr Corbyn and John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, are unlikely to give up something they have spent a lifetime coveting. Like Samson, they would rather pull down the temple on their heads before giving the party back to the vacillating Parliamentary Labour Party.