The vision of the United Kingdom laid out at the annual gathering of the country's main opposition party this week sounded like a socialist utopia.

Britons would only work a four-day week.

A "Green New Deal" agenda would aim to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2030.

Elite private schools like Eton, incubator of 20 British prime ministers including the incumbent and his predecessor, would be abolished.

And many essential services would soon be free, including higher education, childcare, social care and medical prescriptions.

A slate of potentially vote-winning policies designed to attract voters ground down by years of austerity? An ambitious, radical government-in-waiting? A party fired up to tackle the burning issues of the day?

If only.

For all its progressive plans, Labour is unable to escape, nor even cut a clear path forward, on the single biggest issue facing the country.

Brexit hung like a metaphorical cloud over the conference, weighing it down alongside the decidedly non-metaphorical rain that lashed the seaside resort of Brighton where this year's gathering took place.

Divisions over the issue -- as well as more personal feuds that have simmered ever since veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn rose from the margins of the party to become leader in 2015 -- seemed set to tear Labour apart, just as it laid out its bid to become Britain's next government.

Read more of Eliza Mackintosh's analysis here.