Corbyn’s cynical Brexit scheme will end in tears for Labour

My piece for Coffee House last week likened Boris Johnson to the naked emperor, puffed up with self-importance but devoid of real power. As the Tory party conference has got underway, I have become even more confident that Boris’s cabinet will soon be shown to be as denuded of power as their leader. But it isn’t just the Tories that are in a mess. Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit position is as untenable and, if anything, even more bizarre than Boris’s.

Has there ever been a major party leader entering conference season and an election campaign, in short succession, while explicitly refusing to take a position on the most important issue of our times? Party leaders, good, bad or indifferent, have at least been willing to share – with party and public – the policy conclusions, reached during their long journeys to the top, when asking for people’s votes. But not Corbyn.

As I understand Labour policy, it is to first force the prime minster to seek an extension to Brexit, thus making his very raison d’etre in office – “Do or Die!” – a stick with which to beat him, as soon as the election campaign gets underway.