Here is how Jeremy Corbyn can overcome the competence deficit

An exclusive BMG opinion poll for The Independent finds the Labour leader is seen as ‘less competent’ than Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt or Theresa May – which is the cost of his equivocation on Brexit

Jeremy Corbyn has been on the wrong side of opinion polls before, and in the 2017 election he turned the tables on them, leading the Labour Party back from the apparent certainty of landslide defeat to deprive the Conservative government of its majority.

He could do so again, but it would be foolish of him and his party to ignore the warnings in the latest BMG opinion poll for The Independent. As we report today, Mr Corbyn is regarded as less competent than either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt – one of whom will be prime minister in two and a half weeks’ time.

What is more, the Labour leader is seen by the voters as less competent than Theresa May, who resigned as prime minister before she was sacked by her party for being useless.

It gets worse. Our poll finds that Mr Corbyn rates worse than Mr Johnson, Mr Hunt and Ms May on four other tests. Voters have a more negative view of him than of any of the three Conservatives. In addition, they are less likely to think that he is “capable of managing Brexit”; that he is a “strong leader”; or that he is “trustworthy”.

Only when people are asked if he “understands the problems of people like me” does Mr Corbyn do slightly better than his Conservative rivals – and only 24 per cent agree, while 52 per cent disagree.

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These findings cannot be brushed aside as the product of media bias. The Independent asked neutral questions in order to find out what voters think of leading politicians.

Some of Mr Corbyn’s supporters like to believe that such findings are distorted by the pervasive bias of the mainstream media outside the period of an election campaign, when rules requiring broadcast impartiality come into effect. This is a mistaken reading of what happened in the 2017 election: UK broadcasters are required to be impartial at all times – although in election campaigns the rules, especially about equal airtime, become stricter.

What actually happened in 2017 was that the Labour manifesto was popular and the Conservative one was not – and Mr Corbyn enjoyed campaigning while Ms May did not.

Some of these factors may repeat themselves if the new prime minister asks parliament for an early general election. But they cannot be taken for granted. The Labour Party would be wise to recognise that Mr Johnson or Mr Hunt would be a more formidable opponent than Ms May. And it needs to understand the damage being done by Mr Corbyn’s facing both ways on Brexit.

It is no wonder that the Labour leader’s opinion-poll ratings are so poor when he seems unable to take a clear position on the dominant question of the day. It was fine to take the view in 2017 that the party should try to ensure that the referendum decision be implemented in the least damaging way possible.

But now that Brexit has been undermined by the Brexiteers themselves – the no-deal purists who voted down Ms May’s pragmatic compromise – Mr Corbyn needs to show some leadership. If the Brexiteers cannot agree on how to deliver Brexit, Labour has to argue that the question must go back to the people.

Mr Corbyn’s equivocation is undermining his standing with the voters and has left the Labour Party trailing a governing party that has failed to deliver its central purpose. A competent leader would argue to stay in the EU in a Final Say referendum.