By the end of this week, the United Kingdom will almost certainly have a new prime minister and closure on 14 years of Tory leadership. One man in particular is working very hard to prevent that, and it’s not the current Tory leader. Since it kicked off with a bizarre, rain-soaked announcement, Rishi Sunak’s election campaign has been marked by ineptitude, misstep and ignorance.

Today, veteran UK correspondent and contributor to The Saturday Paper Paola Totaro on the stratospheric rise of the young strategist from regional New South Wales, whose dark arts of electioneering have pulled off a series of “miracle” victories.