Two British political scientists writing in the NYT about the "realignment" of British voters, in particular, the ability of the Tories to carry traditonal Labour strongholds in northern and central England:

Why is this happening? The popular answer on the left is that this is about economic insecurity, economic globalization and imports from China. But when you zoom in to look not just at areas but individual voters, attitudes toward immigration are in fact the strongest predictor of support for Brexit.

Britons’ anxieties about the pace and scale of immigration, something that Mr. Johnson pledged to restrict, lie at the heart of Britain’s political realignment; many voters are now putting their cultural preferences ahead of their once-tribal party political identities.

But why do voters have these attitudes towards immigration?  Are they just "brute"?  Or could they be a misguided response to economic insecurity and globalization?   The question doesn't appear to occur to the authors.