Corbyn’s rejection of the Downing Street invitation has turned out to be a bit of a gift for May, as she can deflect attention from her own procrastination and failures in people management onto the Labour leader. She now has someone else to blame for the ongoing struggle to reach an agreement on Brexit.

She also appeared to invite MPs to put the matter of a second referendum to a vote, not just in order to kill talk of it off through a Commons defeat, but presumably because this will force Corbyn to take a position on a matter which he has been very reluctant to approach.