Baroness Bryan of Partick, who was born in south London, says it is her job to get the ball moving

The Marxist baroness of Partick is a mild-mannered woman with an immodest aim. She seeks the dismantling of the British state and a socialist reordering of the constitution. You may scoff, but if Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister she will be midwife to a new United Kingdom.

It would be easy to underestimate Pauline Bryan, who was last year elevated by Mr Corbyn to the House of Lords as Baroness Bryan of Partick. The 69-year-old is soft-spoken and self-effacing, with none of the glib fluency of a career politician, and readily admits gaps in her knowledge.

Yet underestimating her would be a mistake. This is a woman who has spent a lifetime in thankless political activism on the hard left of the Labour movement, all