The prime minister was repeatedly laughed at, heckled and jeered on national television by a representative studio audience. That alone – in last night’s televised leaders’ hustings – tells the story of this campaign: an early election called solely to crush any meaningful opposition in Britain, and launched as a presidential contest dependent on Theresa May’s unique popularity.

Corbyn on defensive over manifesto while May labelled 'blowhard' by Paxman Read more

Instead the election has been about May’s dissipating authority, her almost obsessive commitment to U-turns, her declining personal ratings, tightening polls and a deeply impressive Labour insurgency. May didn’t appear the “strong” candidate last night. She appeared shaky, on edge, falling back on a strategy of boring Britain to death with waffly, empty answers. May hoped to spend this election hiding from the public and media scrutiny as much as possible. Anyone watching last night’s non-debate (May is too frit to debate her opponent) in good faith would conclude that this was a wise decision.

When she lauded her government’s record on the NHS – months after the Red Cross described it as being in a state of “humanitarian crisis” – a perceptive audience member muttered, “Bollocks. Absolute bollocks.” When she had the temerity to savage Labour for having sums that didn’t add up, the audience collapsed into incredulous laughter: for only Labour produced a costed manifesto. When Jeremy Paxman suggested her penchant for U-turns would mean EU leaders would conclude she’s “a blowhard who collapses at the first sound of gunfire”, a large chunk of the audience cheered and clapped. The only thing that helped May was Paxman’s caricatured interrupting. It meant rather than allow her to hang – not least over her consistent inconsistency – she was rescued by Paxman’s OTT barrage. Boring the audience into submission also helped: May’s talent is making you forget what she’s said almost as soon as she’s said it. Losing the will to live, I started the #TheresaMayGIFs hashtag on Twitter which abounds with comic gifs expressing May’s terrible performance.

Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, thrived. Unlike May, Corbyn relishes campaigning and talking to the public, and it showed. When the audience laughed, they laughed with him, not at his expense. The Paxman bombardment proved a spectacular miss in Corbyn’s case, because he kept his zen demeanour. Paxman employed a peculiar strategy of suggesting Corbyn had watered down his radicalism: even when it proved a failure, he persisted. Why wasn’t the abolition of the monarchy in the manifesto? “It’s not in there because we’re not going to do it,” he scoffed, and the audience laughed and cheered. He remained calm, clear and jovial.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Jeremy Corbyn relishes campaigning and talking to the public, and it showed.’ Photograph: Reuters

May’s decision to make the election a presidential contest is backfiring: that’s what last night’s showing told us. She may be helped by the failure of the entire British press to reflect that on their front pages. But as a senior journalist for a rightwing paper tells me about the Tories: “They’re in a complete panic. All over the shop. They know the IRA stuff isn’t sticking.” By this stage, they believed Labour would have plummeted in the polls to the early 20s – or even worse. This was supposed to be a walkover. A combination of Tory incompetence and Labour’s thriving campaign has rather upset that calculation. And as Corbyn’s ex-press officer Matt Zarb-Cousin put it, Labour is being helped by election broadcast impartiality rules: finally, voters are being presented with a second look at the Labour leader and the party’s policies.

Yes, there are major reasons for nervousness. Before the election, Labour’s polling was very bad indeed, in a country where polls tend to overstate Labour’s lead. The Copeland byelection loss and Labour’s local election results all seemed to be pointing towards a terrible defeat. That’s why – hands up – I feared the left was heading towards disaster, its ideas being buried under the rubble of a terrible election defeat (while at the same time I was being berated by the Labour right – including a senior Labour MP to my face a few weeks ago – for playing a leading role in the party’s destruction).

Never have I been so desperate to be wrong. Labour’s polling is being inflated by its surging lead among young Britons, as well as previous non-voters. Everything must now be thrown at boosting the turnout to avoid the polls – their changes in methodology notwithstanding – once again inflating Labour’s ratings. There are other challenges too: the political map is so weighted towards the Tories that even if Labour took a lead, the party would still lose. But there’s no question that Labour’s polling would not have increased without a vision and policies that are inspiring and clearly rooted on the left. And yes, that’s down to Corbyn and his team. The odds remain stacked against the party. But while a historic defeat seemed inevitable just weeks ago, it no longer does, and a shambolic Conservative party and an inspiring Labour vision are responsible.