I was a huge Jeremy Corbyn supporter but now I just want him to resign

When Jeremy Corbyn snuck onto the Labour leadership ballot paper at the last minute in the summer of 2015, I had some renewed hope for the future of the party. After that surprisingly awful election defeat, it looked as though Labour was set to lurch to its right, especially when acting leader Harriet Harman whipped her MPs to abstain from voting on the government’s welfare bill.

Corbyn suddenly appeared as a solution: a potential party leader with an anti-austerity message that was far more inspiring than anything offered by Ed Miliband.

He stood out from a lacklustre field of candidates with his unpolished style and principled policies. At the time he announced he was running he was seen as a massive outsider, both in terms of winning and his political position. The term “veteran left-winger” hadn’t been used that frequently since Ryan Giggs retired from football.

Corbyn appeared to be a change from politics as usual, but unfortunately, it all unravelled less than a year after his election.

Corbyn’s time as leader has overwhelmingly proven him to be more incompetent than refreshing – and I say that as someone who wholeheartedly backed him from the start. Now I have to admit that the warning signs were there from early on, particularly when he began to blame the media for most of his struggles.

That blame game has continued among his remaining supporters, many of whom clearly place loyalty to their man ahead of acknowledging his lack of electability. It simply isn’t good enough to use unfavourable coverage as an excuse. The purpose of the media is to thoroughly scrutinise politicians, especially party leaders, who have to be prepared to deal with it.

I accepted that Corbyn would never win a general election once the polling worsened for Labour after the Brexit vote. Since then it has been consistently horrendous, with some polls showing Labour up to 17 points behind the Conservatives. That is against a Conservative Party in government during the most turbulent time in recent political history, with a continued budget deficit and a national debt above 90 per cent of GDP.

The polling has translated into electoral failure too, and an opposition party losing a seat to the Government in a by-election for the first time in 35 years should be enough on its own to force the leader to resign.

David Miliband said on Saturday that Labour is further from power than at any time in the last 50 years, and I think he’s absolutely right. As admirable as it is to have strongly held principles, they are completely pointless if you are incapable of winning a general election and putting them into practice.

In Corbyn’s defence, one of his most attractive principles is his honesty. But the trouble is that it’s become increasingly clear that isn’t what people actually want from their politicians. While honesty is an important part of any political arsenal, it is dwarfed by the most crucial quality that a leader must have: charisma.

This became obvious during recent attempts to relaunch Corbyn as a left-wing populist, which completely flopped. To succeed as a political outsider, you have to be an enthusiastic public speaker to convince the electorate that your policies are worth voting for. The power of charisma as a political weapon has been proven by Donald Trump, whose public speaking ability is the closest thing he has to a redeeming quality. The US President’s unique way of talking was so effective that he was able to tell easily disprovable lies and still see his polling numbers rise. Corbyn’s unique way of talking only manages to make him sound as though even he is bored of his ideas.

I completely understand why many of Corbyn’s supporters get so angry when his shortcomings are pointed out. They feel this is the only opportunity they will get to have a leader who agrees with them, and that if Corbyn quits then the left will fade into obscurity.

However, they need to face up to the reality that, barring a truly spectacular turnaround, Labour is set for a crushing general election defeat in 2020, for which the left of the party will be blamed. There’s no need to completely abandon left-wing policies, but they must bring in a more effective figurehead – someone, perhaps, like Clive Lewis.

The party now faces a difficult reality. If a leadership contest happened tomorrow, any candidate seen as centrist by the party’s membership would be defeated by Corbyn, who will surely only step aside for an equally left-wing candidate. But equally, a left-wing candidate would struggle to even accrue the nominations needed to get on the ballot paper after taking the risk with Corbyn so spectacularly backfired.

There will have to be a compromise, with both the pro and anti-Corbyn sides of the party unifying behind a candidate that neither of them is completely happy with, for the sake of having any chance of winning the general election in 2020. Labour has a simple choice to make: replace Corbyn with a more charismatic leader, or face electoral oblivion and political exile. And it’s the responsibility of all factions of the party to help make that happen.