This week the opposition were given a gilt-edged opportunity to strike back at the government, an open goal — all Corbyn had to do was slot it in the net. Sir Ivan Rogers, an experienced diplomat who had served as Britain’s ambassador to the European Union since 2013, has resigned. This comes just two short months before Theresa May plans to trigger Article 50 and begin the Brexit process. But more importantly, in his letter to staff, the veteran civil servant blamed his decision to leave on the government’s “muddled thinking” and lack of any clear plan with which to approach the negotiations.

This was it — the chance for the opposition and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to tap the ball into the net, or to use another analogy, to land a heavy blow that would knock the Tory government back on the ropes. Finally, Corbyn could prove all his naysayers and the hostile media wrong and show that he was a competent leader after all, and that he could effectively act as an opposition to the government. But Corbyn didn’t even have his boxing gloves on. Reverting back to the earlier analogy, he wasn’t even wearing his football boots. He didn’t issue a statement to the press, nor comment on Twitter or Facebook. He said nothing.

While it is true, as many of Corbyn’s rabid defenders have stated, that parliament doesn’t officially return until next Monday — and yes Jeremy Corbyn was away in Mexico at the time — newspapers had no problem tracking down Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, who post Brexit seems more of a credible opposition figure than the Labour leader anyway. Neither did they find it difficult in getting a comment from Corbyn’s one-time adversary and current Brexit select committee chair Hilary Benn.

And this kind of pattern is becoming all too familiar. Corbyn’s detrimental relationship with the press has reached such a level that, with him often having nothing of any real value to say, he is now largely ignored and deemed an irrelevance, even by left leaning publications like the Guardian.

And this infectious irrelevance is spreading to the Labour Party itself. At a time when then government ought to be taking a beating, Labour have plummeted to a seemingly unassailable 12.5 percentage points below the Conservatives. If recent by-elections are any indication, the Tories are at a far greater risk of losing seats in the next general election to the Liberal Democrats, who were almost annihilated in 2015, than to Labour. This seems to be true even in the South West, where voters overwhelmingly voted to leave the EU. At least the Lib Dems are seen as having a position on the Brexit issue, rather than Labour who, like the Tories, ignore that almost half of the country actually wanted to remain within the union.

Even leading Corbyn cheerleader and Unite chief Len McCluskey has admitted that the Labour Leader will need to go if polling does not improve by 2019. But will that be too late for Labour to bounce back before a proposed 2020 election? More than likely. Corbyn needs to leave now and allow Labour to choose a leader with a clear direction for the years ahead, a principled man or woman with well-thought out positions on the issues that matter to the public most, and who has the support of his or her MPs.

For without a strong opposition and at least the threat of kicking the Tories out of power, Theresa May and her cabinet can rule the United Kingdom unchecked and without consequences. And in a “free world” that will soon have far-right Donald Trump as its leader, that is a chilling thought.