Almost regardless of the results in last night’s Makerfield by-election, the stage is now set for Labour to tear itself asunder in the weeks and months ahead.

As it becomes increasingly clear that Sir Keir Starmer is determined to cling on to the keys of No 10 until they are wrenched from his grip, the prospect of a bloodless coup by Andy Burnham or one of his ambitious colleagues looks more distant than ever.

Sir Keir will undoubtedly face a leadership challenge that will surely spark another period of crippling stasis in a Government which already appears to have ground to a halt.

The plotting in corners of Westminster pubs has been under way for weeks now. It can only be a matter of time before the infighting begins in earnest amid an ugly pantomime of recriminations and resignations.

Needless to say, the real victims of this political paralysis will be those who always suffer the most under Labour: the hardworking Britons who keep this country on its feet.

Before his stilted appearance earlier this week at the G7 summit, at which he looked like a man stuck at a party where he didn’t know anyone, it was already clear that Sir Keir has been distracted from the huge challenges facing this nation. Meanwhile, his ministers seem more preoccupied with jockeying for position and working out their job prospects in the post-Starmer era.

Given all that, taxpayers might be forgiven for asking a very simple question: just who exactly is steering the ship at this perilous moment?

Defence humiliation

It was no doubt humiliating for Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis – in his first full week in the job – to arrive at a Nato summit with no plan for extra funding.

The repercussions of Sir Keir’s shameful penny-pinching on our nation’s military budget may yet prove to be grave indeed. Given the increasing threat

from foreign aggressors, his reluctance to invest in defence is all the more difficult to fathom.

In the past week alone, Royal Marines boarded an oil tanker suspected of being part of Russia’s shadow fleet and – in an apparently unrelated incident – one of Putin’s warships fired warning shots close to a British yacht in the Channel. Meanwhile, a court heard that two men convicted of arson attacks on two homes belonging to the Prime Minister – as well as a car he had previously owned – were hired by Russian operatives.

If Sir Keir is unwilling to earmark funding for defence in those circumstances, it is difficult to imagine how bad things would have to get before he’d be prepared to do so.

As for Mr Jarvis, it wasn’t only embarrassing for him to turn up empty-handed at the Nato gathering. It was a moment that summed up just how far Britain has fallen as a major international power.

Warped priorities

Given Labour’s determination to squeeze every last penny out of hard-pressed Britons, it is hardly surprising that an extra £30billion was raked in through stealth taxes and stamp duty in the space of a year.

And how soul-sapping that so much of that public money is being splurged on benefits payments to those who can’t – or won’t – work.