The financial travails of Labour, now nearly £20m ($37m) in the red, have been widely documented. Perhaps more serious, however, is the loss of the party’s human capital as activists desert in increasing numbers.

Labour membership hit about 400,000 at the birth of New Labour, but had fallen to 198,026 by 2005 and to 176,891 by last year. This may mask an even more worrying trend.