LONDON — No one would have begrudged Theresa May a stiff gin and tonic in Downing Street — even if it was a Monday.

After a torrid few days of self-inflicted pain over her controversial plan to make more people pay for their old-age care out of the value of their family home after they have died, the last thing May needed was a prime time interrogation from the BBC’s bulldog-in-chief Andrew Neil.

But that’s what she got. For a prime minister suffering a serious mid-campaign wobble, it was an excruciating interview at times, prompting her at one point to exclaim, perhaps more revealingly than she imagined: "I haven’t got through this election yet.”

With less than three weeks to go before the general election, here are three takeaways from the bruising encounter.

'It looks shambolic and reeks of hubris'

It seems a long time ago that the prime minister was sitting on the One Show, talking about “boy jobs” and “girl jobs.” Monday night, May looked vulnerable.

There’s no way around it: her manifesto has bombed. The PM and her team gambled that their runaway lead in the polls, especially among older voters, gave them the freedom to be bold — the freedom, crucially, to raise cash from their core voters: home-owning pensioners.

Until now, May’s mistakes as PM have mostly been committed by others in her government.

But home-owning pensioners vote. They are the difference between a landslide and an uncomfortable night for the PM on June 8.

The reaction to the proposed “dementia tax” — as the policy was almost immediately dubbed — was visceral and immediate. Asked what forced the government’s U-turn earlier Monday, in which the PM promised to introduce a cap on care costs to limit people’s liability, one senior Tory said, simply: “Collective feedback.” MPs out on the streets in their constituencies are clear that the policy had cut through the noise of the campaign.

One influential Tory official, who worked closely with former Prime Minister David Cameron, said: “It looks shambolic and reeks of hubris.”

The immediate reaction? How was the policy allowed into the manifesto? Where were the checks and balances from experienced ministers? How could Lynton Crosby, the Australian campaigning guru advising the campaign, have let it through?

The immediate blame fell on the shoulders of May’s influential co-chief of staff, Nick Timothy, with reports claiming that senior cabinet ministers weren't informed of the plan.

The calamity speaks to a wider problem for the Tories. May’s small, tight-knit team of advisers appeared to have shown Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne how to do politics last month by surprising everyone in Westminster with a snap election no one expected. But such tight circles come with their own drawbacks — there aren’t enough people telling you when you’ve got something wrong.

Until now, May’s mistakes as PM have mostly been committed by others in her government — Chancellor Philip Hammond’s failed tax rise in this year's budget most conspicuously. After this week, though, the trust between Tory MPs and Number 10 may be a little bit more fragile.

This lady is for turning

In a text message, one leading pollster, who asked to remain anonymous, said May’s social care wobble looked “awful” but only to “those of us paying attention.”

“I’m not sure how many voters are paying attention,” he said. “In focus groups, it comes up a bit, but people don't really understand the argument and aren't that interested. Handling Brexit and not wanting Corbyn are much bigger factors.”

One Tory minister was equally sanguine: "Small earthquake in Chile. Nobody killed."

By U-turning on the policy within days, May hopes to cut it off as an issue before it sets the agenda for the remaining part of the campaign. If the question of the election is about which party is best placed to care for the elderly, the Tories are going to do far worse than if it’s about which party is best placed to carry out Brexit.

“We've yet to see the full-on carpet-bombing of Corbyn,” the pollster explained, alluding to the Conservative Party's plan to relentlessly target the Labour leader before polling day.

Confronted over the narrowing of the polls by Neil on Monday night, May straight-batted: “There’s only one poll that counts.”

Time and again she returned to Corbyn. It looked and felt uncomfortable — it certainly didn't signal confidence.

“Jeremy Corbyn wants to sneak into Number 10 by playing on the fears of older and more vulnerable people,” she said. It was a premeditated attack but smacked of weakness.

Corbyn, a vegetarian north London peace activist who accidentally became the leader of the opposition, doesn’t strike the public as an opportunist who will say and do anything to get into Number 10. Indeed, if that was the case, he might stand a better chance.

But...Jeremy Corbyn!

Until now, May’s stark contrast with Cameron has been a strength. While he was seen as quick on his feet, combative, flexible in debates and interviews, May’s more down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach — her promise to “get on with the job” — has given her a spike in the polls. Tory candidates everywhere hail her as the asset Cameron never was.

And she has been blessed with an opponent who — until recently at least — was also considered an asset.

It was a theme she returned to again and again on Monday, even if at times it made her sound odd.

"This must be the first time in modern political history that a party has broken a manifesto pledge before an election” — Andrew Neil to Theresa May

Asked where she had found £8 billion for the National Health Service, May repeatedly said: “Our economic credibility is not in doubt. It’s Labour which is in the dock on economic credibility.”

Neil, a formidable opponent, refused to let her get away with it. “You’ve frozen in-work benefits for almost seven million people — how are you on their side?” he asked. “Being on their side is about a whole variety of actions,” May responded, unconvincingly.

"This must be the first time in modern political history that a party has broken a manifesto pledge before an election,” Neil fired at her. It was a belter of a put-down and one which stung.

"It’s either going to be me or Jeremy Corbyn," May said. "The question is, who do you want?”

According to the polls, her party is still ahead because most voters trust her on Brexit over Corbyn and, by a wide margin, want her to remain prime minister over the Labour leader.

But that advantage will expire. Corbyn won't always be Labour leader and, at some point, Brexit will be done. Just not before June 8.