Why it's unbearably shit to be Labour right now

Is there a way back for the Labour party? Not under Jeremy Corbyn

Rex Features

Right now, being in the Labour party is an unrelenting grind of disappointment and frustration to make supporting Manchester United, the latest episode of Sherlock, or being friends with Britney Spears in 1998 look like a cake walk. Labour's most unusual leader in living memory sees his reshuffle entering a fourth day after three shadow ministers resigned in protest at a reshuffle which was already a total failure. Having briefed that this would be the

'revenge reshuffle' to see the end of Hilary Benn as Shadow Foreign Secretary, team Corbyn climbed down in the face of threats of mass resignation. Who knew that revenge was a dish best dropped on the floor and then slowly scraped back on to the plate with your hands over the course of four humiliating days? The last 24 hours have seen Labour's MPs going live on air to resign and accuse Corbyn's right hand man John McDonnell of lying through his teeth. A reshuffle that ought to have been the night of the long knives became the week of the plastic sporks.

For Corbyn, these resignations add to the continued perception of his leadership as a routine in political slapstick. They distracted from his desire to focus questions to the Prime Minister on the topic of flood defences. As Corbyn readied himself for this encounter, a shadow Foreign Office minister quit live on the BBC's Daily Politics show. Cameron's operation ensured that by the time the Prime Minister replied to Corbyn's questions, he knew and could take shots at Corbyn. In their leader, Labour have finally found the master of the dubious art of sharpshooting at your own feet.

Previous challengers for the position included Gordon Brown calling Gillain Duffy "bigoted" and Ed Miliband choking in public on human food, but Corbyn is Labour's Sideshow Bob, staggering from one rake to the next, stepping on each and every one. Even when you can't see a rake, he's busy pulling one out of a bag and placing it in front of himself. 2016's biggest rake is likely to be his obsession with abandoning nuclear weapons.

Labour MPs have fallen out with each other so badly that they are now blocking one another on Twitter. Labour MPs now face the threat of deselection for stepping out of line, and a barrage of hostility from activists if they speak up against the wisdom of the leader. Experts in politics are now being led by a career amateur and his massive horde of zealot supporters. MPs and staff are now subject to a huge political experiment in far-left politics which sees members of the shadow cabinet sacked for challenging the suggestion that the west is responsible for terrorism. To the outside world, it now looks like Labour is becoming the parliamentary wing of the Stop The War Coalition. When sacked, shadow Europe Minister Pat McFadden all but confirmed this, saying: "[Jeremy Corbyn] clearly feels that me saying terrorists are entirely responsible for their action, that no-one forces anyone to

kill innocent people in Paris, to blow up the London Underground, to behead innocent aid workers, that when I say they are entirely responsible for that, he clearly interpreted that as an attack on him."

This plays straight into the hands of a Conservative Party who have been framing Jeremy Corbyn as a terrorist sympathiser from day one. By sacking McFadden and allegedly blaming his views on terrorism, Jeremy Corbyn has handed the Tories yet more ammunition to add to a bulging dossier which includes Corbyn's comments on Hamas, Hezbollah, the IRA and Osama Bin Laden's death. If Jeremy Corbyn were a long-term sleeper agent trained by Tory strategist (Sir) Lynton Crosby, it's hard to see what more harm Corbyn could be doing to Labour's electability right now, short of promoting Diane Abbott, which might still have happened if they'd been able to sack Hilary Benn.

For Labour members who see forecasts of rising poverty, the crisis in housing, a Conservative party unable to maintain collective responsibility in the face of a referendum on the European Union, and precarious UK forecasts, the civil war in Labour is an enormous frustration.

Centrists want Corbyn to stop trying to turn 2016 into an open war on the issue of nuclear weapons, and those on the far left don't understand why Labour's MPs don't shut up and do what the membership wants. The centrists know that Corbyn's plan is a one-way trip into the political wilderness, a long and painful hike to political Mordor. The left know that they hold all the power, and that they can steamroller change through the party backed by the popularity of the leader and the threat of deselection.

For Labour supporters, the worst part is that this mess isn't going to resolve itself any time soon. Labour will probably do better than expected in the local elections in May, because expectations are so low, and because they're the sort of elections that many voters will likely treat as a protest against the government. Even if Labour do badly, there have been enough protests and distractions from the moderates for Corbyn to be able to lay some of the blame on the lack of party unity. For all the grief of MPs and their staff, this reshuffle once again reminds everyone of the huge chasm between Labour MPs and their party at the moment. Every day Corbyn is Labour leader, the party takes another unhappy wander in the general direction of the fires of Mount Doom, backed by an echo chamber of supporters who have absolutely no idea which direction they are headed in, but get up every day with the spring of optimism in their steps. Forced to trudge along next to them are the MPs who get shouted at for suggesting a better road to travel down. For everyone involved, the experience is unbearably shit.

Follow Rupert Myers on Twitter @RupertMyers