THE latest polls put Labour at their lowest point in seven years, on 25 per cent – a massive 17 points behind the Tories. For those who no longer trust polling data, there is harder evidence of the Labour Party’s implosion: its disastrous showing in last week’s Sleaford by-election. In a seat where it came second in last year’s General Election, the party registered a seven per cent slump in its vote to finish behind Ukip and the LibDems. Last month, Labour posted losses in a series of council by-elections in their traditional heartlands. With the chatter at Westminster again forecasting a spring election, time is not on Labour’s side to stage a recovery.

What is the cause of Labour’s malaise? Leave aside the usual ideologically charged animus to the left from the Mail and the Express. The truth is that the ordinary voter understands the party is hopelessly divided and incapable of presenting a coherent programme for government, never mind actually implementing one if it had the chance. By this, I don’t mean simply that Labour has fractured into a series of politically irreconcilable factions (which it has). Rather, even inside the Corbyn camp it is very unclear what direction Jeremy is marching in.

Take last week’s Commons vote on triggering Brexit, which sent the London media into a frenzy. For starters, I should tell you this vote was “non-binding”. In the great, democratic Mother of Parliaments, votes – even when you win them – are not what they seem. Only a vote on government business is taken as binding. Last week’s vote was on an opposition motion (Labour’s) so the result is only ever advisory. However, the threat of lots of pro-Remain rebel Tories supporting a Labour motion – to demand Theresa May spill the beans on her Brexit negotiating stance – caused an upset.

May and Brexiteer-in-chief David Davies turned the tables on Corbyn and their rebels by attaching a cunning amendment to the Labour motion. This effectively agreed to provide Parliament with some advanced notice of the government’s Brexit plans when Article 50, the stating pistol for negotiations with the European Commission, is fired next year. As a result, most Labour MPs – including the Corbynistas – found themselves voting alongside the Tories for the amended motion. Which means that, by 448 to 75, both Labour and Tory MPs supported a proposal backing the government’s timetable to trigger the divorce procedure by the end of March.

In the No lobby were those who intend to oppose Brexit. Mostly that was the SNP (who have a mandate from the Scottish people to stay in Europe), Northern Ireland MPs (ditto), the tiny band of opportunist LibDems, and Ken Clarke, the last pro-Remain Tory.

What happened last week was that Labour, led by Corbyn, gave Theresa May a blank cheque for a hard Brexit. Most Labour MPs, including the Remainers, have now accepted that the UK is quitting the EU. Worse, even the left-wing and liberal elements of Labour have embraced the racist agenda of tougher controls on immigration because “that’s what the people voted for”. As a result, Theresa May’s government now has rein to quit the single market, ditch the free movement of people in Europe, and seek a new trade alliance with Donald Trump. It will be left to the SNP to fight tooth and nail in the lobbies, using every possible parliamentary procedure, to delay or derail a hard Brexit.

Outside of Parliament, Labour is in equal confusion. The Corbynistas are increasingly divided internally. The extreme Stalinist wing, led by Corbyn’s head of strategy Seumas Milne, has seen off a plan by Jon Lansman, boss of Momentum (the pro-Corbyn faction) to create a wider movement embracing non-Labour forces. This latter project would have tried to emulate Podemos in Spain and the 5 Star Movement in Italy, by mobilising people outside the traditional parties using social media. Instead, Momentum has become an internal Labour faction premised on constituency battles to de-select anti-Corbyn MPs. Meanwhile, Momentum is still being infiltrated by the old Militant group (now called the Socialist Party) and what’s left of the far-left SWP. So much for the Corbynistas being able to run a political whelk stall.

North of the Border, the situation inside Labour is slightly different. Using its base at Holyrood, Labour has attempted to distance itself from Corbyn and the divisions at Westminster. However, Scottish Labour is still wilting. The latest YouGov poll in Scotland had Labour on 15 per cent, in third place behind the Tories on 25 per cent. That means Scottish Labour is a whole 10 points below even its pathetic UK position. The reason here is easy to see: Scottish Labour has decided to position itself as the main Unionist party in opposition to the SNP government. But pro-Union voters, if offered a choice between the Ruth Davidson Party and divided Labour, are plumping for the Tories.

Scottish Labour is busy transforming itself into a grumbling, negative adjunct to Tory attacks on Scotland and the SNP. Result: Scottish politics is increasingly a battle between the SNP and the Tories. Let me give you one handy example. Recently, SNP MPs at Westminster were leading a debate to get justice for so-called WASPI women born in the 1950s whose state pension age was adjusted without adequate notice. We have been waging this campaign for some time and it is clear we are winning over a number of Tory backbenchers. Then up pops Ian Murray, Labour’s sole Scottish MP, to ask a question in the debate.

Does Ian attack the Tory government and demand restitution for the WASPI women? No, he launches into an attack on the Scottish Government for not using its new welfare powers to make up the pension deficit suffered by WASPI women. Other MPs, particularly the rebel Tories risking their careers by taking on Theresa May, looked bewildered at this irrelevant intervention. Satisfied he had his name in Hansard, Ian left the debate while the rest of us went on challenging the real enemy – the Conservative government which controls the purse strings.

Note: pensions remain a reserved matter. True, the new welfare powers given to Holyrood do include the right to provide special provisions for targeted groups. But with a £10 billion real-terms cut to the Scottish Government’s budget as a result of Tory austerity, it is difficult enough to make ends meet. It is simply not possible therefore – this side of independence and a revived economy – to replace each and every Tory welfare cut. Ian Murray knows that full well. But it has become the default position of Scottish Labour to demand, on every conceivable occasion, that the SNP government use its limited new welfare powers to replace Tory cuts. This is opportunism writ large because it lets Theresa May’s right-wing administration off the hook. Which may explain why Labour in Scotland have slumped to a miserly 15 per cent.

As an ex-member, Labour’s problems do not make me happy if they merely reinforce a swing to the right in the UK. There is an alternative: for Scottish Labour to focus on the Tories as the real enemy and join with the SNP in building an independent, social democratic Scotland.