It’s still fresh in my mind: the moment just a few months ago that Theresa May’s spokesperson first categorically ruled out a snap general election. And there were many such denials. This week’s announcement of that very thing may have taken us all by surprise, but Labour has been preparing for it since the Conservatives anointed Theresa May prime minister last July.

On Wednesday evening, while Theresa May was locked in a Bolton church with cherry-picked Conservative activists, Jeremy Corbyn was delivering Labour’s message on the streets of Croydon. Over the course of the next eight weeks, most people will engage with domestic party politics for the first time since the last general election. Many will be paying attention to what party leaders have to say for the first time ever. Unlike the commentariat, the general public doesn’t revel in every twist and turn of Westminster politics. The way politics is often covered in the mainstream press, as though it’s some sort of Netflix drama, does not really chime with the serious conception people have of politics.

This was best illustrated by a woman named Brenda, vox-popped outside her house earlier this week, who shouted, “Not another one!” after being told a general election had just been called. Theresa May’s announcement on Tuesday, lauded by the rightwing press as a “strategic masterstroke”, will have left most people feeling simply bemused. As the prime minister said herself not long ago, what the country needs now is stability, not yet more political upheaval. When Brenda cried, “Oh, not more politics!” she spoke for many of us.

But if May wants a mandate from the British people to steer this country out of the European Union, then she must now be expected to earn it. So far she has been afforded the luxury of assuming power without having to endure a bruising leadership contest, and then had a damascene conversion to supporting Brexit, told us that Brexit means Brexit, held Donald Trump’s little hand and performed a U-turn on a snap general election.

We should not allow any prime minister to win simply by default, without making their intentions clear. There should now be a battle of ideas, of policies, of contrasting visions for what post-Brexit Britain will look like. The British people deserve to be presented with a clear choice. This is a general election, not a ratification.

Take May’s decision to duck TV debates. Many political journalists were keen to applaud her “very sensible decision” to say no, reluctant to apply any pressure themselves – as though they are merely passive observers of politics rather than active participants in it. Let’s not forget that it is the Conservatives themselves who set the public’s expectations on TV debates. In 2010, David Cameron badgered the media for them relentlessly as he thought it would give him an edge over Gordon Brown. Instead, it just ignited Clegg-mania. No longer the challenger, instead an incumbent prime minister fearful of Miliband-mania, Cameron then agreed to only a modified version of the debates in 2015.

Whether May likes it or not, TV debates are now a permanent fixture of the British general election wall-chart, which is why both the BBC and ITV are planning to proceed with them, even if it means empty-chairing her.

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But unlike the prime minister, who appears to be pioneering a campaign method of saying as little as possible to as few people as possible, Jeremy Corbyn will speak to the country at every opportunity. The referendum campaign showed how engaged people are in politics when they are presented with a clear choice and an imminent decision. Polling shows that Labour’s policies are popular, and with a more engaged electorate as we near 8 June, those policies will cut through and boost Labour’s support as the campaign progresses.

Jeremy Corbyn will today pitch himself as an insurgent candidate, giving him the space to frame a hostile media as being a part of the establishment, desperate to maintain the status quo – a status quo that isn’t working for most people, that Brexit proved people are fed up with, and that Labour would overturn. So don’t let the establishment tell you this election is a foregone conclusion, there is a long way to go until polling day.