Pat MacDonald, Labour candidate for Mrs May's constituency of Maidenhead, said that the exit poll was "testament" to the "extraordinary campaign run by Jeremy Corbyn", adding that Labour would be "paying thanks" to Theresa May for making "this possible".

"I am absolutely delighted, given where we were four weeks ago. For the first time in 20 years I'm fully behind the manifesto we've put forward.

"Our leader has put forward a fantastic campaign. I'd also like to thank Theresa May for the way she's run this campaign.

"I wasn't a Corbyn fan from the beginning. But at the second election I was absolutely behind him. I just think that if a few more of our member of Parliament had shown a bit more loyalty over the last few months, imagine what the result would look like then?

"I think we've benefitted from an unprecedented youth turnout, but also Conservative pensioners - a huge chunk of their vote.

"Jeremy Corbyn must have been doing a jig around Labour Party HQ when their manifesto came out, I found it frankly astonishing.

"There wasn't anybody who I knew involved in politics who didn't think that this was the biggest own goal ever scored. Especially the winter fuel allowance and Scotland, trying to win votes there whilst saying to people in England 'we don't give a damn about you.'

"She hasn't performed well on TV or with members of the public, there's been no rapport, she's ran away from debates.

"I did a hustings with her in Maidenhead and the only people who knew about it was the local paper the Maidenhead Advertiser.

"That doesn't give people a chance to engage with her and ask her questions. It was the Conservatives idea to have leadership debates, and now there always running away from them."