Much attention has been given to Grant Shapps’ words this morning to Times Radio, in which he warned, as Sunak did overnight, that Labour shouldn’t be handed a “blank cheque” to do whatever they want. It’s not quite a concession of the election, but it’s close…

“You want to make sure that in this next government, whoever forms it, that there’s a proper system of accountability…you don’t want to have somebody receive a super majority. And in this case, of course, the concern would be that if Keir Starmer were to go into No 10…and that power was in some way unchecked, it would be very bad news for people in this country, a blank cheque approach, allowing to do anything they wanted, particularly when their particular set of plans are so vague.”

Miriam Cates on The Sun’s “Never Mind the Ballots” goes further: 

“I do think that we are facing potentially a large Starmer majority… very very large majorities are not good for democracy.“

The messaging strategy has long been planned in CCHQ for otherwise faltering periods of the campaign. Will that be enough to shift the dial?