Theresa May says she ‘shed a tear’ on general election night

Theresa May “shed a tear” when she saw the exit poll on general election night, the Prime Minister has said.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live the PM said she was “shocked at the result that had come through” and that it “took a few minutes” to sink in.

Asked whether she had cried, she said: “Yes, a little tear, at that moment”.

“It was when I heard the exit poll. To be honest with you, I didn’t actually watch the exit poll myself – I have a little bit of superstition about things like that,” she said.

“My husband watched it for me and came and told me and I was shocked at the result that had come through in the exit poll. It took a few minutes for it to sort of sink in, what that was telling me.

“My husband gave me a hug and then I got on the phone to CCHQ, the Conservative party, to find out what had happened.”

Ms May said that up until the exit poll she had been told that the Conservatives were on course for a good result.

It was previously reported that Ms May was met with a “stony silence” when she arrived at Conservative party HQ later in the night.

A Conservative staffer was reported, by the Daily Mirror, to have been “physically sick” once the results rolled in.

Speaking on Thursday the Prime Minister said she took “responsibility” for the result and that there was “more” she could have done to tackle the concerns of voters.

Ms May claimed the result was “about the balance of messages within a campaign”.

“When it came to the actual result there were a lot of people within the party who had been very close to the campaign who were genuinely shocked by the result as it came through. We didn’t see it coming, I don’t think many people in the Labour party saw it coming.”

The PM added that she did not regret calling the election adding: “If you look at the result we took seats that the Conservative party have never held before, like Mansfield.”