Theresa May exclusive: Can the Prime Minister see off Jeremy Corbyn's late surge?

It is a campaign with one essential warning that is being hammered home at every opportunity: whatever you do, don't vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

It harks back to the opposition to Brexit, which was based around the warning that voting to leave the EU would send Britain plunging into recession.

For Theresa May it has been a testing past fortnight. Prior to the terrorist atrocity in Manchester she performed an embarrassing U-turn over social care plans that had only been revealed days earlier in her party's manifesto.

The old 'Theresa Maybe' headlines from earlier this year were being dragged out again. We were given a reminder of her other 2017 U-turns over National Insurance and holding an election.

Meanwhile the gap in the opinion polls continued to narrow.

However, despite the failure of Remain, history has told us that political campaigns tend to work best if they focus on one simple message.

Yesterday in the Black Country Mrs May launched the final stage of the Tory campaign - and she was in her element.

Mrs May insisted she was the right person to lead us through the Brexit negotiations and coloured her speech with a large helping of her now customary bashing of Jeremy Corbyn.

Some would argue that the Labour leader needs no help when it comes to making himself look daft.

Indeed, a few hours before Mrs May took the stage at Wolverhampton's Grand Station, Mr Corbyn was getting in a right old pickle over his party's plan for free childcare costs.

But lambasting Mr Corbyn has become a central feature of the Tory campaign, so much so that Tom Watson has accused Mrs May of 'viciously' attacking him to make up for her party's weak policies.

Mrs May smiled when I asked for her views on Mr Watson's comment. She denied she was feeling the heat of Labour's revival in the past fortnight and added: "I've based my campaign on setting out for people the great challenges that we face in this country and the challenges that the new government coming in will face.

"One of those key challenges is Brexit, because if we make a success of Brexit it makes all the other things so much easier.

"If we don't make a success of Brexit it makes the other things we want to do harder to achieve.

"It is a clear choice for people. There is only one of two people who can be Prime Minister.

"You can either have me and a strong Conservative majority government, or Jeremy Corbyn in a coalition that would not be strong going into the Brexit negotiations."

• MORE: Theresa May's Brexit battle cry: Your Black Country needs you

• SKETCH: Express & Star's Rob Golledge looks at how the gloves came off as the bell sounds on the final stage of General Election campaigning

• READ: Theresa May puts Brexit back at the heart of campaign

She added that a Labour victory on June 8 would be perilous for Britain with Brexit negotiations due to start just 11 days later.

"That's when we need to have a Prime Minister and a government who knows what they are doing and has a clear plan," she said.

"Jeremy Corbyn says he will tear up any plans that we have put on the table, so he will be going into that negotiation without a plan for what to do and potentially still trying to form a government."

Mrs May denied she was now regarded as an indecisive leader after apparently changing her mind over a series of key issues since the start of the year.

On social care she insists she sought to clarify her position on the issue due to 'scaremongering' from Labour.

"I have identified the ageing society and social care as one of the great challenges this country faces," she told me.

"I think it's really important that we recognise this and that we start to do something about it.

"If we don't do something now the social care system will collapse. I want to ensure we have a long term solution which is sustainable, so people don't have to sell their home during their lifetime to pay social care bills.

"They can guarantee £100,000 to pass onto their families and there will be a cap on the absolute level of care costs they have to pay.

"The reason I spoke about the cap is because when we first launched the manifesto with the key principles there was a lot of scaremongering.

"I heard that scaremongering and I recognised that people could be worried by that, so I clarified what I would put in our consultation."

The Prime Minister's decision to call an early election drew widespread criticism, particularly after she had repeated said there would not be one.

But she says the efforts of other parties 'intent on trying to frustrate the Brexit negotiations' forced her hand.

"That's why I thought it was right to go to the country and say to people that they had a clear choice about how to go forward in these negotiations," she said.

"And that's why I say every vote for me and my local candidate is a vote to strengthen my hand in those Brexit negotiations.

"Otherwise the Lib Dems the Scottish Nationalists have made it very clear they would prop up Jeremy Corbyn in a coalition government."

It is a simple message, repeated often. Whether its is powerful enough to present Mrs May with the majority she craves remains to be seen.