‘This is going to be a disaster’: inside the Tories’ chaotic election campaign

From the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine

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When rumours were ablaze that Rishi Sunak was about to call a snap election, one Conservative cabinet minister was asked by a colleague what was happening. No idea," he replied. He's either going to call a snap election today, name a date for the autumn or tell everyone that AI is really, really important."

The cabinet - and most officials in Tory headquarters, which was disastrously underprepared - had been kept in the dark until almost the last moment. When Sunak did announce the election in Downing Street in the pouring rain, the move went down like a lead balloon with his colleagues.