My advice to Jeremy Corbyn: create a Labour of all the talents | Martin Kettle

The Tory party’s travails represent a great opportunity, but only if the opposition presents itself as strong and united

In a distinctively Conservative context, Michael Heseltine has posed an important question for all those who reject the doctrinaire extremes. The most important liberal Tory of the Thatcher era asked this week whether the national interest of preventing or softening Brexit should override any partisan anxiety about what a Jeremy Corbyn government might mean. You do not have to be a pro-European Conservative like Heseltine to see that the answer to that question is now yes.

Heseltine’s dilemma is an academic one at present. Corbyn may have said recently that he expects Labour to be in power by the end of 2018. Yet that seems unlikely. The problem is not that Labour might not win a general election in 2018. If there is one, Labour’s chances of winning it are reasonably high. The problem is that there is an obstacle: the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

Related: Theresa May urged to withdraw Tory whip from Michael Heseltine

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