Does Gordon Brown do it deliberately? Wait until a campaign is dying on its feet and then emerge from the shadows where he has been lurking, make a few barnstorming speeches and claim a stunning victory.
Towards the end of the independence referendum of 2014, when the Yes camp was having a last minute surge, Brown entered the fray and is widely credited with securing a win for the Unionists.
This is unfair, of course, to those who ran Better Together, particularly Alastair Darling, but Brown’s timing did give the impression that is was him and him alone who saved the day for No.
It was his intervention that produced the Vow, the pact that led to the Smith Commission that led to sweeping new powers for devolved Scotland.
Now he is doing it again. Until Monday, Alan Johnson was running Labour’s Remain campaign, not that anyone would have noticed.
The party has been unconvincing on Europe to say the least, with Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell barely persuading themselves they are in favour of staying in Europe, let alone influencing undecided voters.
With polls suggesting the vote next Thursday is too close to call, and some even putting Brexit ahead, panic has set in among Remainers and urgent remedies are required. Cue Brown.
The former Prime Minister has acquired the clout he lacked in office and in a strange way (what other way is there for this politician?) he has endeared himself to the British public since his 2010 electoral defeat.
This is less surprising in Scotland, where he has always commanded more respect, and where lacklustre Labour leaders make his big beast qualities beguiling.
Although he might have been unsuited to day to day prime ministerial pressures, he – as a master of impassioned rhetoric – is a great campaigner.
This, the Remain camp hopes, will help change English minds now. Brown spoke in Leicester on Monday as Labour relaunched its pro-EU campaign. He addressed traditional Labour voters, who are divided on Europe, and warned them that they have the most to lose from Brexit.
Voting to remain, he said was ‘stronger for jobs, for rights at work and maintaining a British voice on the world stage’.
There is a growing fear that large numbers of working people will vote to leave the EU because they are worried about high levels of immigration. The arguments put forward by the likes of leading Leaver Boris Johnson reflect their concerns more than the pro-Brussels views of David Cameron.
If anyone can reach this demographic it is Brown. In the last days of the campaign, deploying his tub thumping skills around the country will surely be more effective than anything the warring Tories can do.
Apart from his solid Labour credentials, he can still deliver a mighty punch with his son of the manse moral conviction. Even cynics will be moved by his ‘we should be leading not leaving Europe’ speech from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral – which 18-year-olds are currently sharing on Facebook.
Few doubt that Brown speaks from the heart and in this EU referendum that is a rare thing. It has been a campaign characterised by political posturing, with senior figures on both sides hedging their bets and taking a gamble to further their careers or other causes. No wonder the electorate is either confused or can’t be bothered.
In Scotland it is assumed voters will come out for Remain but the message from the Nationalist government has been mixed.
Nicola Sturgeon has long used leaving Europe as a possible trigger for a second independence ballot so while her party’s position is to Remain, some SNP supporters would welcome Brexit in bringing their real goal – breaking up Britain – a little closer.
To keep everyone happy, Sturgeon has refused to share a platform with other pro-Europeans and distanced her campaign from the official Remain effort. But her strategic reasons for doing so are lost on most voters, who are not quite sure who to believe.
Those desperate for another shot at independence are apparently now intending to vote Leave, following George Osborne’s prediction last week that a triumph for Remain would end the secessionists’ dream once and for all. Nice one George!
In such a vacuum of political principle, sending in Brown seems like a shrewd move. What a contrast his endorsement of ‘a Europe where the only battle is the battle of ideas’ to the mealy mouthed ‘I’m a Europhile not a Unionist’ discomfort of Sturgeon as she tries to defend the contradiction of being against the UK but for Europe.
Who, having been harangued by Brown, would not want to be one of his ‘internationally minded’ Britons, rather than the little Englanders championed by the Leave xenophobes or the anti-Union Unionists of the SNP?
