Tories face a Corn Law moment, but catharsis is nowhere in sight | Larry Elliott

In 1846 Robert Peel defied his party with a repeal, dooming them to years in the wilderness

The mood in the Conservative party is fractious. Backbench MPs are at odds with their own prime minister. An issue that has been bubbling away beneath the surface for decades has burst out into fratricidal warfare. Ireland is central to the political crisis.

That was Britain in early 1846 when Sir Robert Peel used the Irish potato famine to push through the repeal of the Corn Laws, splitting the party in the process but the parallels between mid-19th century Britain and today are obvious. The fear for the Tories is a long spell in the political wilderness: it took 28 years after 1846 for the Conservatives to form a majority government.