Labour has a problem in Kent. And it is not that it seems hopelessly divided, although that is not helping its resolve to recover its lost ground in Kent since its heyday under Tony Blair.

The problem is that it has yet to find a way to present itself as a credible alternative to UKIP.

Those that forecast that after Brexit - and the departure of party leader Nigel Farage - the party would implode are being confounded.

UKIP saw off a Labour challenge in a by-election in Thanet, where the results handed control back to the party against a backdrop of what has been almost constant turmoil within the ruling group.

Labour is not alone in being puzzled.

Owen Smith acknowledged the UKIP issue is one it has to get to grips with as he hit the campaign trail in Medway. But his diagnosis, which is shared by his rival Jeremy Corbyn, is one thing. The cure is quite another.

You don’t need to look far for the evidence that the party is in danger of going into freefall. It was humiliated in by-election in Ashford, losing a safe seat to UKIP earlier this month. It contrived to lose a safe county council division in Gravesham East to the Conservatives.

Immigration is a running sore, of course, but that is not the only challenge.

But Labour has a similar problem to the Conservatives when Labour was in its pomp during the Blair years.

It is seen as irrelevant by voters and the interminable and attritional in-fighting make it likely to remain so for some time, certainly beyond the leadership result in September.

It is talking about what it needs to do but is confronting the one thing that all political parties fear most.

How many are listening?