Jeremy Corbyn has stalled long enough – the time for Labour to back Remain is now

Editorial: When the election eventually comes, it is difficult to see how progressive policy will cut through in spite of the party’s divisive position on Brexit

The Labour Party should be standing on the brink of a historic opportunity. Instead, it stands ready to squander it.

Of course, one makes electoral predictions with great risk. The pundit class has been proved hopelessly wrong by Jeremy Corbyn before. There is certainly time between now and whenever an election happens for everything to change, but it is not to make a false prediction to say the party is currently in a hopeless mess.

The leader’s acolytes have begun the party conference by trying and failing to topple the deputy leader. Mr Corbyn hopes this conference can be the launchpad for popular policies that will resonate with the general public, just as happened in 2017. But Andrew Fisher, his policy chief and the author of almost all of Corbyn’s popular policies, quit on the eve of the conference and launched a devastating, personal attack on Mr Corbyn’s office as he did so.