Conservatives’ election blame game goes on

In this week’s issue of The Spectator, Nick Timothy writes exclusively about why the Tory campaign was a failure. Theresa May’s former chief of staff says that nobody in CCHQ was prepared for the exit poll which predicted a hung Parliament. He recounts how Lynton Crosby said the party would ‘do well’ while Jim Messina’s modelling suggested they ‘would win 371 seats, giving us a majority of 92’.

So, Mr S was curious to read a piece in today’s Evening Standard. The paper – which is edited by George Osborne – paints a rather different story. ‘Officials familiar with Messina’s work’ tell the Standard that Messina actually (correctly) predicted a hung Parliament – not a majority of 92:

‘In his Spectator article, Timothy blamed the consultants by claiming their numbers were wrong. He said there was “a late projection, based on data from the ground and Jim Messina’s modelling, [that] suggested we would win 371 seats, giving us a majority of 92.”