When Michael Foot saw his personal poll ratings slump to an all-time low when he was Labour leader he had a good excuse: he was up against Margaret Thatcher, a strong prime minister who — for all the controversy — knew which direction she wanted to lead the country in.

Jeremy Corbyn has no such defence. He is facing what the public regard as one of the weakest and most directionless governments in our history and yet he manages to be even less popular than Theresa May.

In our exclusive Ipsos MORI poll today, the Leader of the Opposition has a net satisfaction rating of minus 55 per cent . Fewer than a fifth of voters think he is doing a good job, the lowest rating achieved by any Labour leader since Mr Foot more than 30 years ago.

It’s not hard to work out why. He has led Labour into the intellectual wilderness, allowed nasty anti-Semitism to flourish, encouraged deselections by the hard Left of moderate MPs, visited the graves of terrorists and made alliances with Venezuelan dictators. But all this was known some time ago.

What is the reason for the more recent collapse in Mr Corbyn’s ratings?

The answer, according to the polling, is his position on Brexit.

A mere 16 per cent think he is providing strong leadership on this central issue facing the country, less than half Mrs May’s rating — 47 per cent of the public think he is acting in his personal interest rather than the national interest. They are right.

He claims to be the champion of those many millions who are dismayed by the hard Brexiteers, when in fact he has been one of the Brexit-leaders-in-chief.

It is not his job to help Mrs May pass a Brexit deal which she cannot persuade her own MPs to back, but it is his job to offer the country a clear alternative to the mess we find ourselves in.

Instead, the public conclude that he would only make the situation worse. It is a tragedy for Britain that at the very moment in our post-war history that we most need a strong and electable Opposition, we instead have the weakest Labour Opposition leader for a generation.

The only good news in today’s poll for Labour is that it is so bad, it might encourage one more effort by those who currently sit silently grumbling as Mr Corbyn destroys their once-great party to get off their backsides and try to depose him.

Best of the best schools

The Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, was right when he said, in presenting the Evening Standard Schools Awards last night, that: “In our capital city we now have some of the best schools in the world. To be picked out as excelling among London schools is a double honour.”

It is especially remarkable that the award for “outstanding achievement in challenging circumstances” went to the Kensington Aldridge Academy , which lost four pupils and one former pupil in the Grenfell fire.

It had to change site and pupils had to sit AS-levels the day after, but it went on to achieve outstanding Ofsted ratings.

As Mr Hinds said, it shows “what humanity is capable of”. It is inspirational, as are all the schools recognised.

We salute their remarkable heads, teachers and pupils.

Horse sense

There are many cold, wet days on the racecourse when even the most committed horse might be forgiven for dreaming of staying in the stable with some hot hay and a Lemsip. But racing’s shutdown because of an outbreak of equine flu is a serious matter.

The infection, detected at the racing yard of popular Cheshire trainer Donald McCain, could spread despite horses being vaccinated.

Stopping them travelling and mixing should prevent a nationwide outbreak and allow the few that are already unwell to recover.

The big fear is that the March Cheltenham Festival, the best week of jump racing in the world, and then the Grand National, could be hit . Emergency measures now ought to keep them, and the horses, on track.