JEREMY Corbyn has probably had the worst week of press coverage ever received by a new political leader in Britain. At least since Keir Hardie, who founded the Labour Party, and was monstered for being a subversive and – worse – wearing a deerstalker to Parliament.

But I doubt if even Hardie was treated as derisively as Corbyn. He has been cast variously as sexist, for his male-dominated senior cabinet; anti-Semitic, because he has vociferous followers who hate Israel; unpatriotic for failing to sing the National Anthem; incompetent for alienating most of Labour’s former front-benchers; and even a “threat to national security”, by the Tories, because of his attitude to Nato and Trident. Phew.

Labour leaders rarely get good coverage in the press (unless they are Tony Blair). Neil Kinnock was dismissed as a Welsh windbag; Michael Foot as a geriatric lefty; and Ed Miliband as a geek who couldn't eat a bacon roll without making a fool of himself. But never has a Labour leader incurred quite such sustained, uncompromising and vituperative criticism as Jeremy Corbyn.

This is personal. The left-wing New Statesman has been vying with the Tory Spectator in its efforts to dismiss him as a waste of space. Almost daily we read of Labour plots to have Corbyn removed. Party donors are withholding cash, even some trades unions seem unfavourably disposed.

He is a parliamentary leader with few friends in Parliament, on his own side at least. Corbyn did his best to out-manoeuvre David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions by reading out questions from social media. But, his real enemies were right behind him: those grim and restless ranks of Labour MPs who have refused to follow him.

Yet the fact remains that Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour leadership by an even greater margin than Tony Blair in 1994. It is not going to be easy to remove him. And he did win a few points last week. He arguably wrong-footed Nicola Sturgeon for one.

The SNP hasn't quite come to terms with having a Labour leader who is on their left. Ms Sturgeon's remarks on Twitter, suggesting that Corbyn would only make a Tory government more likely, struck the wrong note. Though she did of course offer to work with him on Trident and opposing the trade union legislation.

Anecdotally, there is evidence that Labour is gaining members in Scotland from former Yes voters. Suddenly there is a Labour leader who would never make the mistake of allying with the Conservatives in any No campaign.

Unlike Alistair Darling, Corbyn could argue with real conviction for a social democratic United Kingdom, challenging the Nationalists' assertion that only independence could deliver social justice.

He would endorse everything that the SNP's Mhairi Black said in her celebrated maiden speech to Westminster – especially the bit about the Tsunami election having “nothing to do with nationalism”.

Jeremy Corbyn: the saviour of the Union – who'd have thought it? Certainly, if Nicola Sturgeon were to call a snap referendum in the near future, it would be a risky business. Moreover, the Green Party and organisations like Radical Independence Campaign (now Rise) would almost certainly refuse to join in another Yes Scotland campaign, unless it changed policy on an independent currency.

Nicola Sturgeon isn't panicking yet and anyway seems in no mood for an early referendum. She can reasonably calculate that Jeremy Corbyn won't be around for long. He may well be deposed by one of the right-wing Labour coups that we read about.

And even if he survives until the 2020 general election, the chances are that he would lose by a huge margin. That would leave the Tories in charge in Westminster, which is generally good news for the SNP.

Of course, many people, myself included, feel some real sympathy for Jeremy Corbyn as he is rubbished by the press. It feels very like the referendum period, when the UK press turned on the Yes campaign with similar intensity.

Is it justified? In part, yes. Corbyn is simply not a natural leader – he is an accident. A little like Peter Sellers's brilliant comic construct, Chauncey Gardner, in Being There, Corbyn was the hapless beneficiary of a revolt against establishment politics.

The MP for Islington had never shown any signs of wishing to lead his party. For 32 years he has been a natural backbencher, taking up single-issue campaigns and generally being a "good guy", avoiding the compromises of high office.

Of course, he’s not dead yet. Corbyn’s best hope, looking forward, is that the intemperate criticism directed at him backfires. There has been a rush to judgement.

For example, when the feminist commentator, Helen Lewis, attacked him in the New Statesman for not appointing a woman to one of the top jobs, she missed the obvious point that Labour now has, for the first time ever, a shadow cabinet that has a majority of women. It isn't Corbyn's fault that so many women frontbenchers – Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, Caroline Flint etc – refused to serve.

The suggestion from some columnists that Corbyn is soft on anti-Semitism is simply ludicrous as anyone who knows him can testify. There is no stronger opponent of racism in all its forms than the Labour leader. And his supposed fondness for extreme groups like Hamas is overplayed. Many people in Labour sympathise with the Palestinian cause.

The Conservatives also shot themselves in the foot by claiming that Corbyn was a “threat to national security”. If such is the case, why doesn't someone make a citizen's arrest? Voters don't like that kind of bullying.

He was ridiculed by many for his non-confrontational approach at Prime Minister's Questions. But while we hacks love the cut and thrust of PMQs it is a turn-off for most voters. They might actually like seeing sensible questions being put instead of the usual braying and jeering.

People rather like the idea of a mild-mannered, radical vicar-type as Labour leader. There is something almost Hollywood about it. His policies are much more popular than the hyenas of the press would ever dare to admit.

However, there is a limit. Corbyn’s nadir last week was his new shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, appearing to applaud the IRA bombing campaign. McDonnell apologised effusively on Question Time, as well he might, since no serious politician should even appear to condone the murder of civilians.

But McDonnell also never expected to have to answer for remarks he made as an obscure backbencher in 2003. Like his leader, inexperience remains his greatest weakness. Corbyn doesn't understand party management, lacks discipline and appears to be flip flopping on issues like Europe. This, rather than his lack of charisma, could be his undoing.

It is perhaps Labour's misfortune that there wasn't a more suitable beneficiary of the Corbyn “surge”. Someone like, well, Nicola Sturgeon for example. Compare and contrast her conduct during the General Election campaign with Corbyn’s now and you see what might have been.

Indeed, Sturgeon may actually have started the Corbyn surge by her forthright advocacy of social democratic and anti-nuclear policies. The SNP leader was rock solid, and won widespread support from viewers.

But Nicola Sturgeon has been years at the top, as a cabinet minister for seven years and deputy First Minister. She is almost unflappable on TV after 20 years dealing with the media, and she refuses to be belittled because of her gender or her political beliefs.

She always sounds reasonable, even when she isn't, and dominates her party – utterly. Could you imagine any SNP MSPs attacking their leader in the press, refusing to serve in her cabinet, threatening to stage coups?

Yes, if only Labour could arrange a free transfer, then the Blairites would truly be back in their box, and Labour could look at giving the Tories a serious challenge in 2020. But this is the real world, and unfortunately that just ain't gonna happen.