General Election 2017: Tories lie low while opponents squabble

According to her official spokesman, Theresa May was "working in No. 10" while Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon and Tim Farron hit the road.

And much good it did the Opposition leaders.

Mr Corbyn got into a tangle on defence, the SNP appeared rattled by the Scottish Tories, Mr Farron got cross about gay sex and UKIP's soap opera descended further into farce.

While the PM stayed in Downing Street, the latest polls got even better for the Conservatives. One suggested gains for the Tories in Wales, another put them ahead in Labour-held marginals.

Mr Corbyn's troubles began on Sunday, in what critics claimed was a rambling TV interview in which he ruled out pressing the nuclear button and killing the leader of Islamic State and said he'd suspend air strikes on Syria.

Cue the predictable onslaught from top Tories. "It was staggeringly irresponsible," the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, declared on Sky News.

"He has refused to support RAF strikes against terrorists, questioning the nuclear deterrent when we've already started building the new Trident submarines.

"He seems to be at odds with his own party there. That's s chaotic. And he's not going to get a grip on immigration."

:: It's game on for the Conservatives' crush Corbyn campaign

Ah, yes, Mr Corbyn's own party. The Labour leader was bluntly slapped down by his own shadow defence secretary, Nia Griffiths, a fellow left-winger.

She directly contradicted her own party leader by insisting the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent would be in the party's General Election manifesto.

And for good measure, on pressing the nuclear button, she said: "We are absolutely clear. We are prepared to use it. I am certainly prepared to use it."

Nicola Sturgeon, who like Mr Corbyn was speaking at the Scottish TUC conference in Aviemore, sounded flustered when she launched a full-throttle attack on the Scottish Tories.

Why might she be so unnerved? Because opinion polls at the weekend suggested Ruth Davidson's Conservatives could gain between eight and 12 seats from the SNP on 8 June.

"The hardliners have taken over the Tory party," said Scotland's First Minister. "And now those Tory hardliners want to take over the country as well.

"You know, it's no surprise that UKIP now is losing support to the Tories because the Tories are now threatening to take the UK in a direction that a few years ago UKIP could only have dreamed about.

"But it should alarm all of us and whatever our politics we should all stand up against that rightward drift of the country that the Tories are determined to effect."

It was attack that was wide of the mark, since Ruth Davidson - a leading Remainer in the EU referendum - has been one of the more moderate Tory voices on issues like foreign aid.

For Tim Farron, who makes much of his Christian faith, it was his views on gay sex that returned to haunt him, as it did in clashes with Tory MPs during last week's Commons debate on triggering the election.

Challenged by Darren McCaffrey of Sky News as he campaigned against Labour Brexiteer Kate Hoey in Vauxhall, Mr Farron said tetchily: "I'm not going to give you and answer to that question."

"Why not?" shouted the fearless Mr McCaffrey.

"And I will tell you why," the Lib Dem leader snapped back. "I won't give you an answer to that question and that is because one's personal faith is one's personal faith.

"What counts is your actions and your beliefs in politics and my track record and my passion for the Lib Dems over the last 30 years, since I was a young liberal campaigning against Section 28 back in the late 1980s to just the other year when as part of the Lib Dem team in government we brought in equal marriage and supporting people's rights to love who they love, to be who they are, to marry who they marry, speaks for itself.

"I am passionate about LGBT issues. It is the heart of our party's programme for decades and it will continue to be under my leadership."

But the party in the biggest disarray on a day the Conservatives left the field clear to their squabbling opponents was once again UKIP, with more slapstick in another "Carry On Up the Kipper!" episode.

First, after Paul Nuttall's ban-the-burka policy, came a call for medical examinations for girls at risk of female genital mutilation after trips abroad, immediately slammed by opponents as islamophobic.

Then Mr Nuttall was forced to barricade himself in a room in a hotel as he came under siege from reporters wanting to know whether and where he intends to be a candidate on 8 June.

But that wasn't all.

The day ended with Aaron Banks announcing that after visiting Clacton, which he said last week he was going to contest, he wasn't going to stand after all.

And it's all the fault of Douglas Carswell, the Tory defector who held the seat for UKIP in 2015, Mr Banks suggested, as he threw his weight - and financial support - behind a local UKIP councillor, Jeff Bray.

"It's clear that Douglas Carswell has been a hugely divisive figure and let a lot of people down in Clacton," he said in his announcement revealing his latest U-turn.

"Douglas Carswell is the epitome of a nasty little career politician who didn't give two hoots for the area.

"He stood originally for UKIP because he knew they would win the seat in a general election. He used UKIP and did nothing for Clacton."

UKIP's feuding makes the Labour Party's internal divisions look like a minor disagreement.

Well, on second thoughts, maybe not.

No wonder Theresa May stayed in No. 10.