WHAT the Labour Party desperately needs — and certainly does not have at the moment — is a breast-beating charismatic leader, who will shout from the rooftops, deliver clarion-call speeches, and generally make an impact on the political scene.

Instead, they have a waffler at the helm, someone from the ‘daren’t say boo to a goose’ school of politics, or so it seems.

It is not Jeremy Corbyn’s fault that he is not a charismatic, swashbuckling rabblerouser.

It is the fault of other Labour Party bigwigs who devised a leadership election system so ludicrous that it actually allowed Labour’s political enemies to vote, on payment of a mere £3.

Needless to say, these enemies of Labour forked out their £3 and voted for the man they thought most likely to lead Labour to defeat at the next general election.

And this hard-line left-wing anti-Trident pacifist, Jeremy Corbyn who was their obvious choice.

His victory at the leadership election after Labour’s general election defeat last May shocked “legitimate” party members, some of whom refused to work alongside the new leader, and plunged the party into disarray.

The blunt truth is that Corbyn is simply not a leader of men. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that if he has had greatness thrust upon him, it has inspired him to great deeds.

This was exemplified by the long-awaited and scarcely passionate speech he delivered, saying that Labour was overwhelmingly in favour of staying in Europe — a claim I tend to doubt.

The signs are the great hordes of Labour party moderates and grass-roots workers are far from enamoured with the present situation, which seriously weakens the party’s ability to win vital votes.

Just as well for Labour that the Tories are in a shambles as well.

TORY big-hitter, Kenneth Clarke, who has held a multiplicity of Cabinet posts in his long political career, has, by accident or otherwise, turned the EU referendum into a Conservative leadership battleground.

Clarke said at the weekend that if Brexit won the referendum, David Cameron would not last in 10, Downing Street. He argued it would be ludicrous to expect the prime minister to conduct negotiations with Brussels about Britain’s departure from Europe.

Boris Johnson in particular has wasted no time in launching withering attacks against Europhiles, and has even fired rockets at President Obama who wants Britain to remain in the EU.

No doubt, before long we will see Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, and another reported contender for the key of Number 10, do the same.

In the end it will be more about the battle for Cameron’s crown than about the virtues or otherwise of Britain’s status, in or out of Europe.

All this is very entertaining, but it is exerting damaging blows on the unity of the Conservative Party.

These big egos are giving the impressionthat the fate of the Tory Party comes second to their own personal ambitions at Westminster.