​Going to the polls now is every Tory politician's worst nightmare​

I don’t know if there really is some genius in Tory HQ who wants to call an election this year, but if there is I would like to reach out to that person and shake them warmly by the throat.

I have never heard such a ridiculous idea – and let me be clear that I do not say that because I have the slightest terror of the Labour opposition. Look at Corbyn: he is deteriorating before our eyes. Last week in Parliament he gave an absolute masterclass in the factionalism and sexism that are the hallmarks of the old Labour Left – petulantly refusing to take an intervention from a nice and hardworking Labour MP, Angela Smith, and making it abundantly clear that his boycott applied exclusively to her, as though she were some box of Israeli oranges.

He couldn’t answer basic questions about his weird plan for Britain to leave the EU but remain in the customs union. Would we still sign up to the common customs code? Would we be able to do free trade deals? Would we be represented round the table in Brussels, and if so, how?