IT’S not often we find ourselves agreeing with a Tory peer, but it’s hard to argue with Lord Ashcroft’s assessment of Jeremy Corbyn. Faced with an open goal in the Commons yesterday – the damaging resignation of Iain Duncan Smith from the Tory Government – he “didn’t just miss the net, he missed the ball”.

Quite what the Labour leader was thinking is hard to imagine. One suspects IDS himself will be thoroughly dismayed that his grand move – complete with frank admission that the Tories are the Nasty Party we always knew they were – turned out to be of so little interest to the Leader of the Opposition.

We should perhaps be grateful that Corbyn at least noticed George Osborne hadn’t bothered to show up to try to defend the indefensible. However, if this is the standard of opposition we can expect from Labour, perhaps the U-turner-in-chief- has nothing to fear.

George Osborne too scared to show up in Commons after IDS rupture