Corbyn in the cold

THE passport fiasco aside, this has been a hugely encouraging week – in which diehard Remainers’ last lingering hopes of overturning Brexit were finally dashed.

As recently as Sunday, ‘insiders’ were telling us Theresa May faced insuperable obstacles to securing agreement on a transition deal. Yet within hours, a draft was agreed – and by yesterday, all 27 of our partners had signed up to it.

Thus, it’s full steam ahead to withdrawing from the single market and customs union and taking back control of our borders. And with 57 per cent of Britons saying we should get on with Brexit – against only 22 per cent disagreeing – the idea of a second referendum is now just a crank’s fantasy.

Add yet more healthy economic news – and resounding EU support for Mrs May’s stand against Vladimir Putin (so much for claims that Brexit would sour security cooperation) – and it’s no wonder she has a spring in her step.

As for Jeremy Corbyn, doesn’t he cut an increasingly lonely figure as a champion of the single market and Putin apologist?

But then he is also the man who held up socialist Venezuela as an economic model for Britain. And in the week that benighted country – crippled by 2,300 per cent inflation – knocked three zeroes off the face value of its bank notes, it’s surely time the Labour leader found less contemptible causes to support.