Theresa May is a ghost prime minister and her Chequers deal is in the mortuary. It is no longer a question of whether she will lose her job, but when.

Last week, I got an unprecedented response after I wrote about Mrs May’s personal unsuitability for leading our nation through a historic negotiation. Thousands of Telegraph readers agreed, emailing their furious reactions. An armada of Basildon Bond is in the post, I’m sure.

“So far, Mrs May’s negotiating successes have included giving £39 billion to Brussels in return for nothing whatsoever,” protested one reader. “I’m Conservative and I see Theresa May as an EU servant there to thwart Brexit,” fumed another.

One lady queried the use of the term “rebels” to describe MPs who opposed the Chequers (dis)agreement. “They’re not Tory rebels, they want to deliver on our manifesto. It’s the ones who want to renege on our manifesto who are the rebels.” Well said, madam.

“I will fix this mess,” Theresa May promised after her 2017 general election campaign. Ah, yes, the campaign in which she managed to squander a 24-point lead by avoiding public debate as much as possible while advocating policies that caused cardiac arrest among her own loyalists.