Published: 10:14 AM April 28, 2019 Updated: 8:45 AM September 18, 2020

They say life is lonely at the top - but Theresa May, according to one critic, is finding out just how even some of your most natural friends can desert you in times of crisis.

Prime minister Theresa May. Picture: CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/AFP/Getty Images. - Credit: Archant

In years past, the Conservatives have usually been able to count on the support of the right-wing press to faithfully churn out the party's messages in the weeks and days ahead of crucial elections.

But as the Conservatives head for a tough night of local elections on May 3 - where predictions suggest they could lose one in five of the councillors they have up for election - even previously loyal newspapers have turned on May.

MORE: Tories prepare for local elections massacre with one in five councillors set to lose seatsThe shift in mood of was picked up by Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty on the BBC Andrew Marr Show's paper review.

He said: 'What's particularly interesting is how friendless Theresa May now is amongst the Sunday papers, amongst all of Fleet Street.

'It's partly the failure to deliver Brexit, but it's also - and you notice this in the papers today - by making the Tory Party the party of Brexit and then not being able to deliver Brexit, there's no other story for the government to announce.

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'What they've created is a kind of cosh for themselves for voters to beat them with.

'We're just days away from local elections and weeks away from European elections and I've never seen all of the papers - and it's unaninmous - all of the right-wing press turning on the party of the right.'