Theresa May did not want to call an election but was talked into it by her advisers

There was a campaign wobble but it came at the wrong time.

Nearly two weeks ago Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill told allies that the Tory majority might be as little as 50, expressing worries that it was a far cry from the 100-plus expectation at the start of the campaign.

By polling day the mood had lifted and inside Conservative campaign headquarters they were telling themselves that an overall majority of 70 was the very least they could expect.

In a sign of campaign headquarters’ bullishness, one aide of Theresa May saved a copy of the Times report of the YouGov model suggesting a hung parliament, ready to frame it on their office wall in Downing Street after the election.

When the exit poll