There was a good FT opinion piece by Janan Ganesh last year that argued that Sunak has a liberal ‘vibe’, and that’s what they hate him for. In other words, it doesn’t matter to the Tories that he’s one of the most right-wing prime ministers we’ve had, he was an OG Brexiter long before the referendum or before Johnson or Truss was, very socially conservative, he’s presided over a sharply illiberal shift in the immigration system, etc - because he dresses smart, sounds educated, studied abroad, worked in finance, etc, and that all gives him the ‘vibe’ of a much more liberal politician.

Whereas Truss voted Remain, used to be a Lib Dem and served in the Coalition cabinet, yet they saw her as having a conservative ‘vibe’ because she grew up in the North and came across as proudly unintellectual. And that’s why she beat him in the Tory leadership election.

For these Tories now, it’s not about what Sunak has done in government, much of which is actually profoundly conservative; it’s about who he is, since so much of his identity marks him out as someone who does not come across as tribally ‘one of them’.