Britain’s shadow cabinet suffers a mass resignation

IT IS the sort of political crisis that might normally dominate the headlines for days. But these are hardly normal times in Britain. After a week in which voters decided to leave the European Union, causing the pound and the stockmarket to dive, David Cameron to resign as prime minister and politicians in both Scotland and Northern Ireland to call for independence referendums of their own, the implosion of the opposition Labour Party’s front bench on June 26th seemed like a mere footnote to the extraordinary events of the previous three days.

Labour had campaigned to Remain during the referendum—but only half-heartedly, owing to the lifelong Euroscepticism of its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has brought the party far to the left since becoming its leader nine months ago. Mr Corbyn, who won the leadership contest with a promise to re-engage with disaffected voters about whom the party had supposedly forgotten, conspicuously failed to persuade the Labour faithful to turn out for Remain. The Leave side won crushing majorities in many of Labour’s northern and midland strongholds. Polls showed that many Labour voters were unsure which side the party was even on.