YESTERDAY’S “shock announcement” that inveterate anti-Corbynite and probable Poshest Labour Party Member award-winner Tristram Hunt had jumped ship mid-stream was in actuality nothing of the kind.

The only real surprise with Hunt’s quitting the party is that it took him so long to do it.

His new job at the V&A will undoubtedly be a better fit for Hunt who can now happily fill his days surrounded by the pillage of an empire he obviously still yearns for while completely ignoring the hardship suffered by the plebs in the 21st century.

If Hunt’s decision was meant, as must be supposed, to be a seismic shock to the core of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, it is yet again evidence of his own overblown opinion of his self-worth.

In fact Hunt’s sole contribution to the Labour Party seemed to be to make himself as monumental a pain in the arse as possible to as many as possible.

Hunt, who ludicrously hoped to succeed Ed Miliband as leader in 2015, has been fiercely critical of Corbyn and the direction in which he has taken the party at any given opportunity.

As former shadow education secretary, the Blairite MP for Stoke infamously backed the egregious academies scheme and also publicly defended the “1 per cent” using a speech at Cambridge University to call for a campaign of dissent from said percentile against the party leadership.

The historian and serial picket-line-crosser was one of a number of anti-Corbyn Labour MPs who ruled themselves out of serving in the shadow cabinet in the wake of the 2015 Labour leadership contest, despite the fact they were well aware they would not be asked to do so.

Hunt insisted his departure was not intended to “rock the boat” but that he had been unhappy for some time.

A triggered by-election is never an ideal situation for a beleaguered opposition leader but in this case it will probably be seen as good riddance to bad rubbish.