Something strange has happened to the Corbynite wing of the Labour Party.

They’ve embraced views once associated with the right.

I’m thinking partly of immigration.

In the past, the left welcomed immigrants. Lefties liked to talk about the huge contribution that immigrants have made to this country.

Right-wingers, by contrast, tended to want more controls on immigration.

They generally insisted they had nothing against immigrants themselves. In fact, right-wingers who opposed freedom of movement - the system that allows people from the EU to come to the UK with very few restrictions - often talked about how much they loved their own visits to France and Spain.

But, they argued, allowing too many foreigners into this country was unfair on British working people, as it led to lower wages and a deterioration in working conditions.

There will be some people who object to me calling this a right-wing view. There are Conservatives, and other people on the right, who support freedom of movement.

But it was usually safe to assume someone complaining about immigration was a right-winger. And if you were on the left, you were probably fine with immigration.

Not any more.

It’s now the left that want to end freedom of movement.

The policy was included in Labour’s 2017 general election manifesto.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

And Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, often described as left wing, confirmed the policy on the Andrew Marr show, saying that when European immigrants want to come to the UK “we will look at the situation on a basis of the job and skill needs.”

Those who disagree - who point out that academic studies have disproved the myth that migration drives down wages, that migrants are not to blame for bad employers, that you can quit the EU without ending freedom of movement and that our society benefits enormously from freedom of movement - are labelled “right-wingers”, “Blairites” or “centrists” (sometimes “centrist dads”).

There’s more.

As we consider how to carry out Brexit, it’s clear that the UK has two real options.

We can continue to enjoy the benefits of membership of the Customs Union and the Single Market. Or we can leave these institutions and attempt to go it alone.

A third option is sometimes touted. This is to negotiate some new deal which gives us the same benefits as membership of the Single Market and Customs Union, but also lets us ignore any rules we don’t like.

This, however, is impossible. The EU will never give to us. The nearest we’re going to get is option one with some of the names changed.

What type of Brexit does the right want? Obviously, right-wingers such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg want a hard Brexit - option two. They insist we should leave the Customs Union and Single Market.

The Government’s own studies have shown this would be disastrous for the economy. It would mean fewer jobs, lower wages, less money for public services and more austerity.

So you’d think, surely, that left-wingers would take a different view.

Uh, no. Apparently, if you want to stand up to the Mogg then you are, once again, a right-winger, or at least a centrist.

Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg

You may think I’m kidding.

But take a look at the selection of a Labour candidate to fight the London constituency of Lewisham East, where a by-election is being held.

One potential candidate, backed by Momentum, a group which grew out of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign, told the Independent website that she backed leaving the Single Market (saying: “I think that is the line we need to take in order to respect the referendum.”)

Another, backed by trade union Unite, hinted she might disobey orders to vote for a hard Brexit, but wouldn’t make any promises.

However, the local party selected local councillor Janey Daby - after she promised to support working people by fighting against the Moggite vision of Brexit.

She said: “I oppose a hard Brexit and, if elected to Parliament, I will fight for UK to remain in the customs union and the single market. Leaving the customs union and single market will have a disastrous effect on the economy and, as usual, it will be the poorest who suffer the most.”

Brexit is the most important issue facing the country today, given that it encompasses so much else (the economy, jobs, wages, NHS funding etc).

And the candidate with the most left-wing views on the issue won, I would have thought.

But apparently not. Owen Jones, a journalist and supporter of Jeremy Corbyn who refers to himself as part of the left, seems to think the left lost.

He writes: “The left was always at a massive disadvantage . . . if there had been one agreed left candidate at the start, the whole left could have mobilised in support of them, and even though the odds were stacked against them, they could have had a shot.”

Another self-styled left-wing journalist, Aaron Bastani, of Novara Media, also claims the left lost.

He wrote: “My personal view was that with more time and a single left candidate – drawing endorsements from Unite, Momentum and major left figures – the left would have won in Lewisham East.”

Somehow, being on the left has come to mean helping right-wing Tories get what they want.