This election is about who runs Britain, who gets the power.
And yet there are two names you will not find on any ballot paper but who will play a bigger role in the direction of the country than perhaps 649 of those who will be declared winners in the early hours of Friday morning.
Theresa May could cope without most of those around her but not without Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, her joint chiefs of staff. They decide everything that goes in front of the PM, where she goes, what she says. She would not be PM without them.
Since the Tory manifesto was launched on May 18, half the cabinet has been all but invisible. Red Box analysis by data reporter Tom Wills shows how media coverage of the country’s top ministers is concentrated around Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond, David Davis and Michael Fallon.
The next most reported-on figure is not in the cabinet at all. Nick Timothy is, depending on who you ask, either the thoughtful aide who provides intellectual ballast to the May project and gives voice to it in her speeches, or the beardy weirdy who once read a book about Joseph Chamberlain.
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His reputation has taken a knock after he pushed through the social care policy in the face of resistance but he remains incredibly close to the PM. He is bruised, not wounded.
Our analysis shows he has appeared in more news stories in the past couple of weeks than Damian Green, friend of the PM and tipped for promotion, and Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary.
After those two, the next person with the most column inches is Fiona Hill, who is acting as director of communications for the campaign. The spin doctor has been in the news more than the secretaries of state for education, justice, business, transport, communities and many more.
For politicians this can be hard. They spend years getting selected, elected and promoted until finally they get their feet under the cabinet table, where the power lies. As if.
“You cannot go on having government run like this,” says one senior Tory. Those feeling squeezed out felt a touch of schadenfreude at Timothy’s discomfort over the social care fiasco. Talk of a rift between him and Hill is overplayed. They remain incredibly close.
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Others accuse Timothy of “arrogance and hubris”, which has allowed a 20-point lead in the polls to crumble before our eyes. One Conservative candidate said: “He has basically led us to this enormous f***-up”. A former minister said: “We have been left with a manifesto which came across on the doorstep like a bucket of sick.”
Some are preparing to go to the chief whip and demand changes in the No 10 operation. “When you fire everybody, it is no surprise that things are a bit clunky,” said one minister. “They lost all of the institutional memory so mistakes were inevitable.”
These critics are likely to be disappointed. May depends on “Nick and Fi” like no other. The pair left the government to take party political roles running the election campaign but as Buzzfeed reports, special arrangements were made for them to temporarily rejoin in the wake of both the Manchester and London attacks. The former home secretary needed them by her side.
Yesterday the Tories took delivery of their final campaign poll and there will be much scratching of heads about what it means. Will the majority top 50, 80, 100 ... 150? May might be on a whistlestop tour today but her mind will already be on Friday.
And then the hard bit. Constructing the team that will take us through Brexit. The cabinet formed in a whirlwind last July was assembled quickly from familiar parts. May has lived with it, got used to the bits she likes, learnt to love some of its faults, become aware of the rough edges she would like to knock off.
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She will never be more powerful than on Friday. Whatever the result, however large the majority, whatever the mood of elation or disappointment, it will never be quite as good again as the moment she stands outside No 10 and addresses the nation.
And so to the reshuffle. The final decision on Philip Hammond’s future will not be made until the result is clear but it’s not looking good. Amber Rudd, who has survived in the tricky position of doing the boss’s old job, knowing she will never quite do it well enough or know enough, is one of the few people (with Jeremy Corbyn) to emerge from the campaign with her reputation enhanced.
A move to the Treasury would suit her and May, who was stung by criticism that the march of the women her arrival in Downing Street heralded resulted in a fall in female ministers and later an exodus of her female advisers.
Boris Johnson has been allowed out to play in the final days of the campaign. It doesn’t feel like a farewell tour, although he could be moved to another department.
David Davis, not a man lacking in confidence, eyes the Foreign Office and perhaps deputy PM. Damian Green, Brandon Lewis, James Brokenshire and Ben Wallace are among the trusted group of ministers who have the PM’s trust and should expect promotion.
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But all of them must be in no doubt as they settle into their new jobs who’s really got the power.