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MAYBE it is an anomaly. Maybe it was an odd sample. Maybe respondents were in a strange mood, following the Manchester terrorist attack. But a poll published yesterday evening will nonetheless have given a few Conservative election strategists a sleepless night.

The survey, carried out by YouGov for the Times, suggests that the Tories’ lead over Labour has narrowed to only five points. At the beginning of the election campaign, barely a month ago, some polls had the Conservatives more than 20 points ahead.

YouGov’s fieldwork was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, meaning that respondents had had time to digest both the government’s screeching U-turn over the weekend (see article) and the Manchester bomb on Monday evening (see article). It follows several polls that had shown the Tories’ lead dropping to around the ten-point mark, even before the U-turn.