Brexit will be the defining political issue of this parliament. I wish the government well in the negotiations and fervently hope they will bring back a deal that makes the very best of Brexit. It’s at times like these that Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition earns its bread.

The country needs a strong, coherent Labour Party to constructively challenge the Government’s Brexit agenda, to suggest alternatives and to scrutinise in intimate detail the final deal when delivered.

Sadly for the United Kingdom the Labour Party is all over the place on Brexit.

Fundamentally, the Labour Party cannot agree a common position on this issue which is resulting in regular large-scale Commons rebellions and an embarrassing churn in the shadow cabinet.

The most recent example of this was an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr by rising Labour star Rebecca Long-Bailey, where she famously claimed that Labour “want to have their cake and eat it”.

The Shadow Business Secretary claimed that Labour would view a deal that maintained single market membership with “flexibility” on free movement as “fantastic”.

This comes two weeks after Jeremy Corbyn sacked three shadow ministers for voting for a rebel amendment in the Queen’s Speech calling for the UK to remain a member of the single market and customs union.

At the heart of this contradiction is a split in the Labour party over attitudes to the EU.

Before his ascension to the Labour leadership, Jeremy Corbyn was a relatively outspoken Eurosceptic. This view is shared by large sections of the Labour base with swathes of voters in traditional working class communities backing Brexit last year.

This is juxtaposed with the views of moderate Labour MPs who have maintained the Europhilia of the Tony Blair years. Labour’s base in London and amongst young people and students hold similar views.

The Conservatives sought without success to exploit this divide in the recent General Election.

I strongly believe that Labour were only saved from a significant decline in their working-class support by the utterly shambolic General Election campaign run by the Prime Minister and CCHQ.

However, the next two years will present a significant challenge to the Labour Party who will come under increased pressure to spell out exactly what they want for the UK post-Brexit.

In doing so they risk splitting or de-energising the coalition of voters that saved Corbyn in June.

Unless, of course, Labour devise some way to convince ordinary voters that they can have their cake and eat it.