May is yesterday’s star for a stunned Conservative Party

NOT since the final stretch of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership has Britain seen more hubris in Downing Street.

First was David Cameron, supremely confident he would win the EU referendum, and, after his fall, Theresa May, super-confident she could, politically, kill off Jeremy Corbyn and his divided Labour Party with a snap election.

Both insisted their actions were in the best interests of the country but, in reality, they were executed in the best interests of the Conservative Party.

In the early months of the year, the Tories were riding high with staggering poll leads of more than 20 per cent. Mrs May’s own personal poll rating topped +20.

Finally, after an Easter walk in Snowdonia, the Conservative leader succumbed to the electoral temptation.

Within Westminster it was common knowledge that while the PM was regarded as a good administrator, she was not a good campaigner. She lacked empathy and passion, key ingredients for an election. This was part of the reason why Tory election strategists sought to keep the Maybot as far away from ordinary punters as possible.

Mr Corbyn, meanwhile, is a natural campaigner. He has, after all, won two landslide leadership contests.

Anyone witnessing the Labour leader on the stump saw a man transformed.

Tory hubris also translated into the mother of manifesto blunders.

Such was the overconfidence with which Mrs May had entered the election, she felt able to attack her core vote: pensioners.

To make matters worse, when the doorstep backlash began on social care, the PM promised a cap on costs but denied it was a U-turn when, of course, it was.

Taking the public for granted and for fools meant nemesis followed hubris on June 9.

Now Mrs May is hobbled. Without Brexit, her feet would not have touched the ground as the men in grey suits would have escorted her from Downing Street within hours of the election result.

Having to rely on the DUP is always a risky business and now the PM has called on other parties to “contribute and not just criticise”.

The move understandably has alarmed Tory colleagues, who believe, rightly, it underlines her weakness while, needless to say, Mr Corbyn has gleefully rebuffed Mrs May’s offer, saying it shows her government has “run out of steam”.

The PM’s future looks precarious but as one Cabinet minister confided what the Government feared most was another election, which the Tories could lose.

So Mrs May will stay for the time being, living day by day over the political trap-door. For her and others July 20, when Parliament rises for its summer recess, can’t come quickly enough.