Owen Smith has just blown it.

He was hoping to become Prime Minister by first challenging Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership. But with one crass remark yesterday, he blew it. He urged Labour to “smash Theresa May back on her heels”. What a weird and disturbing thing to say. It might be (just about) acceptable to the sexist, male-dominated trade unions, but to Labour’s more 21st century supporters, it absolutely will not. This sounds very much like the language of a violent misogynist whose mask momentarily slipped. That slip will prove fatal to his ambitions. Jeremy Corbyn, despite his principled sincerity, will never be a credible Leader of the Opposition. And now, more than ever, the UK desperately needs one of those. But it’s not going to be a man who wants to smash a woman “back on her heels”, so the search must go on.