Boris Johnson as prime minister would mean the end of Corbyn’s Brexit fudge

Inside Westminster: Only a Remain alliance headed by Labour could defeat the combined forces of Johnson’s Tories and Farage’s Brexit Party in a general election

Corbyn needs to move with more speed than he is showing (PA)

Boris Johnson has got the contest he wanted against Jeremy Hunt, and is firmly on course for Downing Street. A Johnson premiership would cause shock waves way beyond his party. It would be the final nail in the coffin of Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit policy.

Corbyn’s honourable attempt to unite the country by appealing to both Remainers and Leavers was also designed to unite his divided party. But “constructive ambiguity” has now become destructive for Labour. It is haemorrhaging support to pro-Remain parties, as last month’s European elections showed. Recent polls suggest only half of Labour’s 2017 supporters would back it in a general election.

Greg Cook, Labour’s long-serving polling expert, told the shadow cabinet that since March, the party has lost three votes (two to the Liberal Democrats and one to the Greens) for every one vote lost to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.