His position is untenable. The public knows it, his party knows it, and so does he.

YouGov polling this month revealed 76% of the public think he is performing badly as PM.

After 18 months in charge ​barely one in six hold a favourable opinion of Sir Keir Starmer – the lowest recorded during his time as Labour leader – with four times as many viewing him unfavourably.

His net favourability score is now an untenable -54.

It is clear this country has regressed since the general election with this government’s shambolic time in charge littered with broken promises, humiliating U-turns and an unshakable belief that taxing those who work to the hilt to shower those who don’t with handouts is a sustainable path.

The reality for Labour is how to combat Reform UK, which is surging in the polls under Nigel Farage, and a rejuvenated Conservative Party under Kemi Badenoch.

And this leaves it with four choices. All would do better than wooden Sir Keir who possesses no gravitas, humour, or presence, but it is no longer who is best able to lead the country, rather best able to arrest a seemingly irreversibly negative poll rating.

It’s an impossible job, especially as the country has been left with a collective feeling of buyer’s remorse.

Waiting to plunge the knife are four Labour lieutenants – each a disaster in the making. It is not a matter of if this will happen, just when.

The consensus was to wait until after the May elections when Labour will be dealt a devastating blow at the ballot box (in places where votes have not been postponed by this shameless socialist rabble).

It now seems likely the coup will come sooner.

Former deputy PM Angela Rayner has spent ​her time in exile since being forced to quit over unpaid stamp duty on manoeuvres and is the darling of the left, immensely popular among Labour MPs, the unions and what’s left of the membership. Think the bloated welfare state is insane now? Just you wait.

Ambitious Health Secretary Wes Streeting has used the resident doctors’ strike to reinforce his credentials as a future leader, sticking the knife into militant medics who gambled with patients’ lives in pursuit of yet more inflation-busting pay.

He is unlikely to succeed in a tilt for the top job, not least because he is seen as too right wing and especially if Ms Rayner remains in the running, and his best bet of a high profile is as her chancellor.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood – effectively anointed by former PM Sir Tony Blair – speaks like a Conservative and her words (if not action) in tackling the immigration crisis could see her as a surprise choice.

Tellingly, she is more popular with the Tories than her own party, with her hardline asylum reforms seeing support haemorrhage among Labour members.

Yet many remain quietly unconvinced that Labour, let alone Britain, is ready to be governed by a Muslim woman. That speaks volumes of the left.

Incredibly, net zero zealot Ed Miliband, who led the party until he threw in the towel in 2015 after David Cameron won a majority at the end of five years of coalition with the Lib Dems, remains hugely popular in the party if not in the country.

Miliband doesn’t want the job again but is unshakable in his belief he could do a better job than Sir Keir and the path to prosperity is his warped green agenda.

The PM is a turkey, a dead man walking, but do you really fancy any of the above in Number 10 as Prime Minister?

Well, brace yourselves, because it could happen a lot sooner than you think. The Labour nightmare (part two) is about to begin.