JEREMY Corbyn’s position on Brexit would leave him “alone and naked” in the EU withdrawal talks with Brussels, Theresa May has said as she made a direct personal attack on the Labour leader’s ability to govern.

Speaking in Wolverhampton, the Prime Minister said that, with Brexit talks due to begin just 11 days after the June 8 election, the "revealing" TV broadcast had shown that "I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not".

She told party activists that while the Labour leader had brushed up his image with a smart suit for the Sky News/Channel 4 General Election special, his position on Brexit would leave him "alone and naked in the negotiating chamber" with the European Union.

Mrs May's speech came amid reports that campaign chief Sir Lynton Crosby has told her to refocus the campaign on the choice of leader to oversee Brexit, in the wake of a clutch of polls showing Labour narrowing the gap in the race for Number 10.

The latest snapshot by Survation for ITV's Good Morning Britain placed Labour on 37 per cent, up three points on a week ago and six points behind the Tories, who are unchanged on 43 points.

An ICM survey for The Guardian put the Conservatives, down two on the previous week, on 45 per cent and Labour, unchanged on 33; a lead of 12.

Turning her fire directly on her rival for the premiership, Mrs May told the campaign event: "He is simply not ready to govern and not prepared to lead."

Reflecting on Mr Corbyn's performance when questioned by Jeremy Paxman and a studio audience, the Tory leader said: "He is not prepared to use the nuclear deterrent. He is not prepared to take action against terrorists. He is not prepared to give the police the powers they need to keep us safe.

"He is not prepared to take a single difficult decision for the good of our economy. He is not prepared to answer questions about his long track record of supporting people who want to harm and even attack our country.

"And with Brexit negotiations due to begin only 11 days after polling day, he is not prepared for those negotiations."

She insisted in contrast that she was prepared to take the difficult decisions that leadership demanded.

“Prepared to do what is necessary to protect and defend our country. Prepared to go into the negotiating chamber with the EU just 11 days after polling day. I am prepared. I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not; last night confirmed that.

“Only one of us has the determination to deliver the will of the people and make Brexit happen. And only one of us has the plan to make Brexit a success."

Mrs May insisted she would be ready "from day one" to work on a new "deep and special relationship" with the EU, while Mr Corbyn had "no plan for Brexit".

In the months since the Brexit vote, the Labour leader had first made a "reckless" call for talks under Article 50 to be triggered on day one after the referendum, then had "lurched chaotically from half-baked plan to half-baked plan" adopting seven different approaches to EU withdrawal, she said.

Now, the PM argued, he was promising to tear up the Government's Brexit White Paper and ditch its Great Repeal Bill, setting back the process of negotiation further.

"There will be no time to waste, no way of stalling, no way of asking Europe to hang on while we figure out what to do. The Europeans are ready to go and are determined to fight for a deal that works for them.

"This is not time for a weak government and a weak leader to be making it up as they go along, particularly not when that leader has shown poor judgment and weak leadership throughout the process so far."

Elsewhere, the London Evening Standard, now edited by former Chancellor George Osborne, took another swipe at his former Cabinet colleague, saying the Conservative election campaign had "meandered from an abortive attempt to launch a personality cult around Mrs May to the self-inflicted wound of the most disastrous manifesto in recent history and - after the atrocity in Manchester - shrill attacks on Mr Corbyn's appeasement of terrorism".