Are there any no-go areas for Tories now?

So the country appears - based on the initial results of the local and mayoral elections announced - to be voting for Theresa May.

And I choose my words carefully, in that opinion polls show she is significantly more popular than her party.

The reversed mirror image is a Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, massively less popular than his party - as his closest ally, the shadow chancellor John McDonnell, acknowledged this morning.

It has been a bad day's work for Labour, though not as disastrous as it might have been.

Votes and seats lost pretty much everywhere in England, and in parts of Wales. And where councillors have clung on, there's a widespread acknowledgement that was despite Corbyn, not because of him.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with supporters in Oxford earlier this week. Credit: PA

There is slim comfort that south Wales cities like Swansea and Cardiff have remained Labour: they show the resilience of historic bonds to the party; that there are foundations on which a revival could be engineered.

As for UKIP, it's being anniilhated as a political force.

Also there is no sign yet that the positioning of the Lib Dems by Tim Farron as the party that could keep the UK in the EU has led to a surge: so far it has lost a net 20 odd seats.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron talks to supporters on the general election campaign during a visit to Lewes in East Sussex. Credit: PA

What does it all mean?

Well it reinforces the idea that the Tories are heading for a landslide on June 8 - though you won't hear May or any senior Tory even hinting at that, because they are terrified their supporters will become complacent.

Perhaps more importantly, the Tories seem to be re-establishing themselves as a genuinely national party in a way they have not been since Thatcher and Major 25 years ago.

They are picking up support all over England and in Wales, rather than largely in the wealthy south east, where they are always strong. And we will see later today whether their recent partial rehabilitation in Scotland is gaining momentum.

Prime Minister Theresa May campaigning in Ormskirk, West Lancashire. Credit: PA

There are two people responsible for the reinvention of the Conservatives as a force throughout the country.

One of course is May, whose One Nation rhetoric at a time of Brexit unease seems to resonate all over Britain: Labour MPs tell me with despair how their supporters are angrily informing them that they will vote for her in preference to Corbyn.

The other - whisper it quietly - is David Cameron. Because his decision to hold that EU referendum shot UKIP's fox, and has left the Tories once again relatively unchallenged on the right.

He shot himself in the process of course. But Tory MPs, and even Theresa May, may one day recognise that his own political suicide was responsible for their rebirth.