In 2017, a member of Labour’s inner circle anonymously leaked a draft copy of the party’s election manifesto to the press. The motive was clear: to embarrass the leadership, in the hope that the more radical aspects would be shelved after much public mockery, and the policies contained therein torn asunder by voters, journalists, and experts alike. In 1983, Michael Foot’s Labour Party put forward a manifesto based solidly on socialist principles, which the MP Gerald Kaufman described as “the longest suicide note in history” — an epithet that haunted the left of the party for decades. The leak clearly was designed to invoke that memory, to bully Jeremy Corbyn’s team into quashing anything that might be construed as remotely Marxist and cling to more staid, centrist policies.

And yet . . . the manifesto was immensely popular. In the end, most commentators and activists cast the leak as the turning point in that election: the moment Labour shifted from being miles behind in the polls to becoming a formidable foe that was to eat into the Conservative lead and ultimately cost Theresa May her majority.

A lot was riding on the launch of this year’s manifesto. The Liberal Democrats had released their uninspiring manifesto the day before, with no policies making any particular impact; the party continues to dip in the polls as it becomes clear this election is a two-party race. Labour needed to remain as radical as they revealed themselves to be in 2017, but also present a blueprint for a completely different society that promised to undo the harm a decade of austerity has unleashed upon the country. Some policies were pre-trailed: the immensely popular plan to nationalize fiber broadband and give every home free, high-speed internet access. Renationalizing rail, mail, and utilities. Mass investment in the public services that have been decimated by central government funding cuts.