AN IMPROVED MANDATE
Conservative majority 40 to 79
Shock factor: 2
If success is defined as outcome less expectations, then some Tories will be deflated by this result. Their frustration will be greater if the majority is at the lower end of the range. It will feel like a let-down after they started the election with the polls telling them they were on course for a landslide triumph.
That said, May will have led them to a better result than was managed by any of her five predecessors as Tory leader. This tops David Cameron at either of his two elections and John Major at his. Lynton Crosby, the Australian strategist who was given additional authority over the Tory campaign in its latter stages, will be happy to claim the credit for rescuing May in the final leg of electioneering.
She will be reasonably insulated against backbench revolts over Brexit and her domestic agenda.
Labour will have lost seats and those losses will be substantial if the Tory majority comes in at the upper end of the band. Supporters of Corbyn would need some damn persuasive arguments to make a case that he should stay on or hand over to a successor of a similar ideological persuasion.
Source: The Observer 4 June
