A poll rating today of just over 40 per cent is not necessarily an indication that these voters’ reservations about Corbyn’s politics and his dubious past associations have been addressed. Rather, Labour’s healthy share of the vote reflects a severe polarisation of opinion; for every voter prepared to give Corbyn the benefit of the doubt, there is another prepared to vote tactically for the Conservatives in order to keep him out of Downing Street.

Indeed, Corbyn will always struggle to get away from his past. Many voters may suspend judgment on his meetings with convicted IRA gunmen while the Troubles were ongoing and his gestures of friendship towards the terrorists of Hamas. Others simply refuse to believe the historical record, or don’t care either way. But not everyone will find it so easy to overlook. Without such skeletons in his closet, would Corbyn be further ahead? Would he then be seen as a more acceptable alternative to what we already have in Downing Street?

There also remains the fact that Labour is still a divided party. Few people really believe that the divisions between the so-called moderates and their hard-Left bosses have been healed by the recent display of unity.