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Whatever the result on June 8, Conservative MPs will demand changes in the way Theresa May and her inner circle operate.

Bruises are still fresh among candidates who felt the furnace-like fury of traditional Tory voters over the Wobbly Weekend that followed the unveiling of the manifesto and its disastrous dementia tax.

The episode has undermined confidence in what one former minister calls the “committee of three” that pretty well runs the Government: Mrs May and her two co-chiefs of staff, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy.

“Surely you do not throw something like this up without warning in the middle of an election campaign?” asked the former minister. “Undoubtedly, after the election people will be asking what went well and what went wrong.” In fact the shop stewards of Tory MPs — the “Men in Grey Suits” who form the executive of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers — are already expecting to take action.

As soon as Parliament is recalled, the ‘22 will hold its first meeting in an oak-panelled room in the Commons to take stock. The current expectation is that newly elected backbenchers will be asking how on earth the manifesto contained a bombshell policy that “targeted our core voters”.

An executive member said: “We cannot allow a major cock-up like this to go without some precautionary activity.” One name repeatedly cited by candidates, he added, was Mr Timothy, who reportedly changed the draft manifesto to remove a cap on the amount that any individual could pay. That decision meant the final document implied elderly couples could in theory lose many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

A senior ex-minister commented: “Nick Timothy’s arrogance has steered us into this extraordinary mess.” The concern is shared by the Men in Grey Suits. “Nick Timothy’s name has had far too much exposure,” seethed the executive member. “He should be completely anonymous, in the background. And you know what they say: when officials become the story it is game over.

“If there is to be blood spilled over this, it should be his.”

The manifesto disaster is bound up in the presidential style of the Tory campaign — which appears to have dramatically changed. At the start of the campaign, leaflets and posters focused on Theresa May’s name and “her team”, with the word Conservative in the small print.

Yesterday in Wolverhampton, the backdrop boasted “Theresa May and the Conservatives”. An ex-minister mused: “The problem with focusing on one person is it is much harder to deflect blame when things go wrong.”

A Tory spokesman denied there was any change to the campaign, which still majored on who should negotiate Brexit. He said different posters were used at different times. And a senior minister said it would all turn out Ok: “I think it is one of those campaigns that go through all sorts of things but end up with the number you thought of in the first place.” Mrs May may well get her landslide. But a little slice of her authority over the Tory Party may never be fully recovered.