college (Lady Margaret Hall) and chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford. But even by the standards of Baron Llewellyn and Mr Rusbridger, Mr McCluskey’s re-election to the headship of the Unite union was a shocker.

Unite is a trade union giant with more than a million members and interests in a wide range of industries from financial services to care work. It is also a Labour Party power-broker, providing the party with funds, controlling votes on the National Executive Committee and irrigating its grass roots. The party’s tradition as an alliance between a parliamentary party and a trade-union movement is represented in its purest form in Unite.

Unite’s recent leadership election was the closest thing to a real contest the union has had init condemns Unite to another five years of incompetent leadership while significantly increasing Mr Corbyn's chances of holding onto the leadership of the Labour Party after losing the general election. It is also a tragedy for the general principle of natural justice. Mr McCluskey has delivered nothing but failure. He backed Ed Miliband rather than David Miliband for the leadership of the Labour Party: without his intervention Labour might well have won the 2015 election and Britain might have been spared the referendum. He backed Jeremy Corbyn to succeed Ed Miliband and kept him in office when it looked as if sense might prevail. Again without Mr McCluskey’s dismal leadership the result of the referendum would probably have been different. All the while his own union withered under