The Labour rebels polled modestly but still deserve sympathy

It is hard to see how that result – an average of less than 200 votes per candidate – can be described as “absolutely phenomenal”, as the party leader Kathryn Johnston put it.

However, she is of course right to point out that the group had no backing from the party machinery.

It also launched its bid for election late in the day.

Regardless of the results, though, the rebels deserve the sympathy of everyone in Northern Ireland who cares passionately about the Union.

The recent Assembly election has shown that there is minimal appetite for the main political parties in Great Britain. But it has also shown that the support for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK is, by some measures, higher than it has ever been. The desire for a united Ireland does not have the force it once did in the Province’s Catholic community, or not enough to bring them to the polls in vast numbers.

In those circumstances, it is nothing less than extraordinary that one of the main political parties in the UK is wedded to the notion that its supporters in Northern Ireland should support a declining tribal political party, the SDLP, that has a united Ireland as one of its principal goals and that is traditionally close to the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland.

Ultimately, of course, the Labour Party is an ideological entity that can adopt whatever position it wishes to adopt. It might one day return to its aspiration of Irish unity achieved by consent – that seems to be the position that Jeremy Corbyn has always supported (while giving apparent support to the sort of republicans who did not bother with the consent bit).

But it is still to be hoped that more sensible voices such as Andy Burnham and Alan Johnson prevail and that they extend the full operation of the party to Northern Ireland, including allowing members to stand for election here.