Has 2016 done for Labour?

The Labour Party could find itself "squeezed on all sides" following the rapidly-changing political landscape of 2016, according to a new report six months after the European Union referendum result.

The UK in a Changing Europe think-tank suggests that the six months following the Brexit vote have been the "most tumultuous period in British politics since the Second World War".

The Guardian lists "a new prime minister; leadership challenges in Labour and Ukip; the creation of two major new Whitehall departments; and Scottish independence back on the agenda, as well as the prospect of leaving the European Union," as major changes in the past six months.

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Dr Simon Usherwood from the University of Surrey said of the changes that "while none of these alone is unprecedented, there has been no moment in the post-war period when so much has happened almost at once".

The think-tank took aim at Labour's situation, suggesting this era of political instability in the UK, and the current Conservative government, could benefit other parties, but that it is unlikely Labour will be able to capitalise after a damaging year of in-fighting and indecisiveness.

In the report, political scientist Matthew Goodwin points to Labour's tumultuous referendum campaign to highlight how the vote "exposed a deep and widening divide in the political geography of Labour support".

Goodwin highlights that 70 per cent of Labour-supporting constituencies in the UK voted to leave the EU, and that a tension has developed "between working-class, struggling, Eurosceptic and anti-immigration, and more financially secure, middle class, pro-EU and cosmopolitan wings poses strategic dilemmas for Labour and provides opportunities for its main rivals".

The report also takes into account what appears to be growing support for the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems have come ahead of Labour in multiple by-elections since the referendum and could siphon off other Labour voters who feel that Corbyn's party did not oppose Brexit strongly enough.

"Should the Liberal Democrats, rather than Labour, manage to project themselves as a 'new' political home for remainers who loathe Brexit and the Conservative party but also despair of Corbyn’s leadership, then in some seats this holds the potential to divide the more socially liberal and remain-focused group of voters, at the same time as Ukip is trying to win over working-class voters who used to support Labour," according to Goodwin.

Predicted to be a litmus test for the coming year, a close eye will be kept on the upcoming by-election in Copeland, Cumbria, which was triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Jamie Reed. With the party's slim majority in Copeland, Corbyn will no doubt be watching nervously as a heavy defeat could signal the start of a difficult 2017 for Labour.