"Don't let the Putinistas deliver the Corbynistas".
With that one rally cry Conservatives were reminded just how former British prime minister Boris Johnson got his reputation as a campaign superstar, distilling into one pithy line the message his party is desperate to get out before polls open tomorrow.
Mr Johnson's first foray into the election campaign came late and loud, in a way that is arguably vintage Boris Johnson. But even Mr Johnson, known for his desire to always portray the brightest of visions for the future, could not ignore what the polls are saying about a Labour victory.
It left little option then but to exhort Conservative voters who were thinking of voting Reform to return to the Tory fold in a bid to reduce a Labour majority. It is somewhat unedifying for a former prime minister as well as several senior cabinet ministers to imply bluntly that a Tory victory is now all but impossible, and it has looked so for most of this campaign.
But the polling numbers have moved little during the course of this campaign, leaving little room for any positivity in the Conservative party camp.
While Boris Johnson's return to the campaign trail has garnered headlines, it has also brought reminders which some in the Conservative Party might prefer to have forgotten.
The political chaos of the Brexit years, the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership on foot of numerous scandals including Covid parties in Downing Street and the shockingly short-lived premiership of Liz Truss.
For an electorate which polling suggests may have simply wearied of Tory rule in substantial numbers, the walk down memory lane which Boris Johnson so hoped would fire up the voters may very well have the opposite effect.
Having left his intervention until the last minute, Mr Johnson can also argue that any defeat is not on him.
He will always be able to console himself with the idea that had he been around for the entire campaign, things might have gone a different way, unprovable as that theory will be.
There will be much written in the coming days about the fallout of this election for the Tory party.
Some will focus on Rishi Sunak’s decision making in both the timing and nature of the campaign.
More will focus on the party’s record in power and whether voters simply wanted the change about which Labour has spoken so much in recent weeks.
But those who went before Rishi Sunak will also be analysed for the impact they had on the Tories in recent years and what it will mean for the party in the future.
