It never rains but it comes down in bucket-loads for the Prime Minister. Every time she listens to a news bulletin, she must assume that things could hardly get worse for her than they already have. Well, alas for her, that has happened.

It was the news, which just seemed to slip out, that Labour now lie five points ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls.

When a few years ago, the arch left-winger Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party, the Tories were throwing their hats in the air and whooping with glee.

But that joy was short lived. Ill-advisedly Theresa May called a totally unnecessarily general election, assuming that the Tories slender majority in the Commons would expand to anything between 50 and 100 seats.

They believed (and indeed even some Labour MPs feared) that Corbyn would be routed at the polls. But in the event the Conservatives lost their majority in the Commons and the so-called "loser" Jeremy Corbyn achieved almost pop star status.

In the ensuing months, that popularity has not faded, even though his performances in the House of Commons have not, overall, been great. The Tories' general election campaign, led by the colourless Theresa May, was so pathetic as to be laughable.

And Corbyn, once briefly the laughing stock of Westminster, is now seen as a serious contender for the keys of Number 10. The Tories should be alarmed.

So those reckless Conservative MPs who, despite all this, are still clamouring for an early general election, would be well-advised to heed the unequivocal one-word advice of the former Tory Prime Minister, Sir John Major. It was, simply: "Don't".

It has accurately called the Parliament of Chaos, and might equally be named the Parliament of Shame and Dishonour. When the then Prime Minister David Cameron called the EU referendum, Parliament solemnly promised to adhere to the result.

Well, that has not happened. To their great shame, many MPs have broken that promise and have done everything in their power to prevent the referendum majority from getting its rightful way.

This is a scandal and those guilty of this campaign should not be allowed to forget it.