No Deal? Britain’s far more afraid of Corbyn

AFTER such a turbulent week – four Commons defeats, his brother’s resignation as a minister and failure to secure a snap election – it’s hardly surprising Boris Johnson’s poll ratings have slipped a little.

But he can take comfort from the fact that it is only a little. His party has dropped two points and his personal performance rating just marginally more.

In reality, what today’s Mail poll most clearly demonstrates is the public’s disillusionment not with Mr Johnson but with the whole flawed political class.

A minuscule 13 per cent believe MPs now serve the interests of their country. What a shocking indictment of this zombie Parliament. The sooner it’s purged by a general election, the better.

Jeremy Corbyn is still running scared of course, and these numbers show why.

For all his recent travails, Mr Johnson remains fully 20 percentage points ahead of him on the question of who would make the better prime minister. And on every major issue from education to the NHS, the Tory leader is easily the more trusted.

Most damning for Mr Corbyn however, is that although the country remains sharply divided over Brexit, a clear majority would rather leave the EU without a deal than suffer him as prime minister.

This is Mr Johnson’s shining ray of hope. He has a plan to get Brexit done, which is what great swathes of the country are crying our for.

Labour by contrast, has descended into a hopeless muddle. Its current position is utterly absurd. If elected, Jeremy Corbyn would go to Brussels to negotiate a new withdrawal deal. If successful, he would call a second referendum in which Labour would campaign for that deal to be rejected and for Brexit to be cancelled altogether. And they accuse Mr Johnson of not being serious.

As we said in this column yesterday, Mr Corbyn can’t hide forever. This deadlock simply must be broken.

Yes, Mr Johnson has had a tough week and may be licking his wounds. But if he can regroup and rediscover the energy and optimism for which he’s renowned, this poll shows there is all to play for.