As the exit poll results flashed up on the TV screen in the Cinnamon Club, Westminster, the Old Library room descended into chaos. The few Labour supporters revelled in gleeful ecstasy, the majority of Conservatives let out a pained groan. Many were simply bewildered.
One man, a staunch Conservative supporter, but an avid opposer of May, summed it up succinctly: Taxi for Theresa.
“It’s quite astonishing, really astonishing,” David Thomas told HuffPost UK. “I’m a Tory, have always been a Tory but I don’t like Theresa May. And she really had her comeuppance.
“Cameron won the election he wasn’t supposed to win and May has lost the election that she was supposed to walk.
“Even under Thatcher it was never like that. Tories liked Thatcher.”
Thomas mused over May’s future, and concluded: “She’s gone - if May is leader by 5pm tomorrow I’ll be astonished. It’s always been defined as a party that exists to hold and exercise power and she has demonstrated that she is not fit to do that.
“The old cliché of the men in grey suits... there’s about to be a small army of them going up to Downing Street. It’s taxi for Theresa May.
“Bye, gone, out.”