If I had to explain to Syrian refugees what has been going on in the Labour party about the life-and-death decision to bomb their country, I don’t think I would be able to look them in the eye.

Anyone who is proud of our internationalist, outward-looking party must surely feel a little ashamed to witness how a murderous civil war has been used as a proxy for a domestic power struggle in the Labour party between Jeremy Corbyn and his MPs.

The argument for intervening in Syria is strong – but not strong enough | Wes Streeting Read more

Some members of the shadow cabinet who support action sought a confrontation on this issue because they hoped to stage a coordinated resignation from the frontbench.

But this was always terrible terrain for them. The divisions over invading Iraq have been such a searing and defining experience for the British left that those backing airstrikes against Islamic State are more likely to be branded bloodthirsty Blairite warmongers than be granted the space to make a stand on principle. Nor was there much “new politics” in Corbyn’s display of passive aggression to his shadow cabinet last week, first keeping them in ignorance about his position and then appealing over their heads to party members. Although he has belatedly given MPs a free vote, his attitude throughout has been at odds with his record of indulging his own conscience and a further sign that he is prepared to use such issues to smoke out his opponents.

Never has the few hundred yards that separate the leader’s office in Westminster from MPs in the House of Commons seemed so far. For many British voters, on many issues, including airstrikes, Corbyn might as well be leading the Labour party from the moon. Many mainstream Labour MPs are now convinced that Corbyn’s project is more about permanently transforming the party than about changing the country.

The immediate price has been to squander a precious unity that for most of the last parliament appeared a lot less fragile for Labour than it was for the Tories. Having earned the right to lead Labour by winning a huge mandate from members and supporters, Corbyn also had a responsibility to reassure and reach out to the 90% of the parliamentary Labour party who refused to back him.

He has failed to do so. Barely 11 weeks after his election, any shallow residue of respect has been poisoned with fear, with both moderate MPs and the Labour leader having ever more rational reasons to believe the other is out to get them.

Every time MPs voice complaints about Corbyn and his team, they further embolden Momentum – a supposedly grassroots movement rather too closely linked with the leader’s office – in its threats against MPs. In turn, this concentrates the minds of those opposed to Corbyn in parliament, who are swiftly moving on from asking whether their leader should be removed to discussing “how” and “when”.

As one side prepares the ground for democracy-defying deselections of serving MPs, the other plots an unconstitutional Palace of Westminster coup. Both refuse to recognise themselves in each other or see how they are threatening the very future of the Labour party.

Over the weekend there was another flurry of briefing that a new leadership contest could be triggered in which Corbyn is kept off the ballot paper, with the sort of rule-book ruse once beloved of the hard left. Such a plan would be doomed to fail from the outset and, even if attempted, would trigger an angry wave of deselections.

Others think Corbyn can be removed when party members realise he is leading Labour to electoral oblivion. Certainly, quite a lot of his supporters appear insulated in their cosily self-reinforcing online world from all those voters horrified by his views, conduct and competence.

But too many moderate party figures who should know better are going round telling people how they “cannot bring themselves” to vote for Sadiq Khan as London mayor next year or even how they want Ukip to win the Oldham by-election. They say such sacrifices are necessary to hasten Corbyn’s demise. But in this, as with their sense of frustrated entitlement, they are beginning to resemble 1980s-era Trots who wanted unemployment to rise so they could get their revolution.

They will not win back the Labour party this way. The next time you hear someone complaining about entryism or the influx of new members, ask them how many they have signed up recently or whether they have yet registered a supporter? I’ve tried. The answer is usually “none”. Instead, modernisers appear to be indulging in “exitism”, as thousands flee the Labour party and reduce their influence still further.

There is no obvious escape route for Labour from the party’s agonies | Andrew Rawnsley Read more

It was they who have always lectured the party about how “the road to renewal offers no shortcuts”. So they should learn from Corbyn’s success in attracting new members, make a principled case for their progressive politics, dare to be best and boldest with new ideas on tackling inequality and security, plant their flag in the wide open spaces of the soft left where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown started out, stop sneering at other people’s idealism, and show they are ready to deal with the Labour party as it is rather than as they would wish it to be. There may come a time when a leadership challenge is needed and sustainable, but not until they have rebuilt their ideas and their organisation.

Yes, I share all their despair and anger about a Labour leadership that appears powerless to stop a truly disgusting Tory government sailing through clear blue water to a third term. In the last parliament we got many things wrong but no one ever doubted Ed Miliband’s desire to win and determination to hold the party together. I doubt Corbyn’s credentials on both counts.

But for now I do not know if he will still be leader at the next election and nor, I suspect, does he. I fear both his continued leadership and the clumsy efforts to remove him which risk reinforcing and justifying the hard left’s hold over the Labour party for years to come.

As cinemas prepare for the latest Star Wars film, we would all do well to remember what happened in the first. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a white-bearded Jedi who, after spending decades as a hermit in the desert, seizes an unlikely chance to pursue his old ideas.

In his final battle with Darth Vader, he declares: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Darth, never one to duck a fight, obliges by killing him, but Obi-Wan somehow passes his power on to Luke Skywalker and changes the universe forever. Those hoping that Labour will one day awaken again as a party of government should not do anything daft, or Darth.