Anyone in Labour reviewing the polling data closely may feel anxious about the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn leading the Labour Party into an imminent general election, because of his increasingly poor leadership ratings.

In the March 2017 Ipsos MORI Political Monitor, Mr Corbyn’s overall net leadership satisfaction score was at minus 41 per cent.

During his energetic general election campaign, his scores improved by 30 percentage points to minus 11 per cent in June.

In September, the most recent monthly poll, Mr Corbyn’s net satisfaction scores were minus 60 per cent (with 16 per cent satisfied against 76 per cent dissatisfied), the lowest rating achieved by any leader of the opposition since this series began in the 1970s.

What should trouble the Labour leadership is