Rishi Sunak needs to rally his flagging Conservatives. He hopes a dash of populism will do the trick

abcnews.go.com:

Britain's governing Conservative Party is gathering for its annual conference

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak heads to the governing Conservative Party’s annual conference on Sunday facing a triple challenge: Cheer up a party that’s trailing in opinion polls, sideline rivals who are eyeing his job and persuade the voting public that a party in power for 13 years deserves another term in office.

Sunak's arsenal includes a package of populist measures — such as slowing moves to phase out fossil fuels — designed to win back voters who have rejected the Conservatives over Britain’s stagnating economy, cost-of-living crisis and waves of strikes that have intermittently shut down doctors’ offices, schools and train services.

“Public services are crumbling, the economy’s not responding and (the Conservatives) haven’t met some of the pledges they’ve made, so you’d expect them to be pretty downhearted,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

He said that in response, the party is «doubling down on the populism. It’s about pushing the Conservatives as standing up for ordinary people against some sort of elite.”

In recent weeks, Sunak has approved new North Sea oil and gas drilling, delayed a ban on selling new gas and diesel cars and watered down other green measures that he said imposed “unacceptable costs” on ordinary people. On the eve of the conference, he announced plans to curb supposed “anti-car measures,” such as blanket 20 mph (32 kph) speed limits and traffic restrictions in residential areas.

Such moves have dismayed environmental campaigners, but are designed to appeal to the party members, officials and lawmakers gathering in the northwest England city of Manchester for a