Sunak, Take 3: Why the British leader is undergoing his third political makeover

At his party’s conference last month, Mr Sunak made “an attempt to stick to the ‘red wall’, and what we’re seeing now is a kind of U-turn and focus on the ‘blue wall’,” Professor Ford. said. “And the problem is they can’t have both.”

Mr Sunak’s attempt to don a populist mantle failed for another reason.

Although he shares many of Ms. Braverman’s ideas, he has proven ineffective at selling them. His public image is of a “cosmopolitan, technocratic, California-loving, world-traveling tech-bro type,” Professor Ford said. “That kind of anti-woke, anti-immigration politics just seems very shocking coming from someone who is perceived that way, even though it is very likely quite close to his actual personal politics.”

One risk for the Conservatives is that their pivot gives more space to Reform UK, the successor to the Brexit Party once led by Nigel Farage, a right-wing rabble-rouser. A renewed reform of Britain could siphon votes away from the Conservatives, allowing Labor to regain “red wall” seats under Britain’s winner-takes-all electoral system.

Perhaps the biggest question is whether moderate Conservatives will see the return of Cameron, who embodies many of their values, as the restoration of their brand of politics. Many of those voters blame Brexit for Britain’s stagnant economy, but also for unleashing the populism that has dominated their party since 2016 and often seems to caricature them as members of a privileged metropolitan elite.

Mr Cameron, of course, called the referendum that led to Brexit. And after losing the campaign to remain in the European Union, he resigned.

“They have endured a barrage of abuse from their traditional party for seven years and now, in a way to win them back, that party is putting the man in the House of Lords who has taken the whole barrage of abuse kicked off and then ran away. ” said Professor Ford. “There’s no guarantee it will work.”