Unloved and unlovely, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are propping each other up. We have reached that stage in the movie when two rivals stop sparring with each other because a common enemy has started to fire into the last-chance saloon.

That enemy was lurking in the shadows of the local election results. Angry and disappointed voters turned away from the two main parties, willing to lend their support to Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents, or simply not voting. At best, all projections point to another hung parliament if, as the pollsters like to say, there were a general election tomorrow.

The two leaders’ options are running out. May has all but abandoned hope of getting her party and Democratic Unionist Party allies to back