It tells you all you need to know about what an utter shambles the UK Conservative Party had become that when, as polls closed last Thursday night and the exit survey predicted it would win 131 seats, there was palpable relief among many Tories. They had feared the result would be worse – at one stage, opinion polls had put them in a close race for second place with the Liberal Democrats.

To many minds, 100 seats became the psychological threshold between annihilation, and merely a terrible result. When the seats were declared, the actual number – 121 – was a bit worse than the exit poll, but even that was towards the upper end of expectations. As former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng told journalists, this was not an “extinction event”.

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street in July 2022. The new British PM, Keir Starmer, in the same spot on Friday after Labour’s election success.Credit: AP

For Conservatives, this election was only ever about saving the furniture. Some valuable political furniture was indeed salvaged, notably former chancellor and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt – the man Boris Johnson beat for the leadership.

However, the Tories were never going to turn around the 20 per cent lead which Labour had enjoyed for over a year. During the campaign, Labour’s lead widened. This was due both to the impressively disciplined performance of Sir Keir Starmer, and the sheer awfulness of the Tory campaign. That awfulness was not the fault of the strategists – led by the Australian Isaac Levido (who had vehemently opposed Rishi Sunak’s decision to call the election early) – but........

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