Why does Boris Johnson keep on winning?

For his critics, Boris Johnson offends the notion that the British are a sensible people so deeply we feel we no longer understand much of our country.

How, we wonder, can so many voters support an obvious phoney? How does a prime minister who makes it up as he goes along get away with it?

The fraudulent promises of rising living standards, the national self-harm of Brexit, the deliberate exacerbation of tensions in Ireland and the treatment of former friends in Europe as enemies have produced an anti-Johnsonian culture. Its brilliant satires and devastating newspaper columns are as ferocious and outraged as the anti-Thatcherism of the 1980s – and just as ineffective.

A report released today by Labour Renaissance throws a bucket of cold realism over our fevered rages. The new think tank wants to reconnect Labour with working-class voters who have left the party for the Conservatives. It hopes to make Labour understand why these vote gave up on a party they supported all their lives.