In the end it looks like lightning did not strike twice.
Having run the Tories close in 2017 Labour hoped they could repeat the success in 2019.
For the party’s supporters, especially its legions of young activists, the disappointment will be immeasurable.
They saw a future of hope and now find themselves facing five grim years of a Tory government that has made no attempt to tune into their frequency.
It will be little consolation to them that this feels very similar to 1992 when John Major beat Neil Kinnock.
Yet again it looks like we will have seen a Tory government scrape back into power because voters could not imagine the Leader of the Opposition as a plausible Prime Minister.
Within months there could be widespread buyer’s remorse as Boris Johnson breaks his promises and runs the economy into the ground.
If the exit poll is correct, Labour will once again have to hold an inquest into where it went wrong.
Was the manifesto too ambitious?
Did it target the resources at the right seats?
Why is it capable of piling up votes in the big cities but is struggling in its former heartlands?
There will also be questions for Jeremy Corbyn.
You lost count of the number of candidates who said that he was the problem on the doorstep, not Brexit.
Under his leadership Labour has been more preoccupied with making the argument for socialism than winning over voters.
They won the argument but - if the exit poll is to be believed - lost the election.
