After the local elections on 4 May 2017 saw UKIP lose all it had previously gained at the ballot box and Labour’s hard left turn did nothing to attract voters, British politics seems to be heading for a new centre ground.

That’s the view of Dr Adrian Pabst, Reader in Politics at the University of Kent’s School of Politics and International Relations.

Twenty years after Tony Blair’s ‘third way’ triumphed in a landslide general election victory, Dr Pabst says British politics is seeing another realignment.

In an article entitled Postliberalism: The New Centre Ground of British Politics, published by the influential journal The Political Quarterly, Dr Pabst argues it is the centre ground of British politics that is shifting – away from left versus right towards a contest over liberalism.

Dr Pabst says that under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour has rejected liberal economics but favours the social liberalism of open borders and cosmopolitanism – while Theresa May has distanced herself from the economic liberalism of Thatcher and the social liberalism of Cameron. Her politics is post-liberal – an attempt to chart an alternative to both globalisation and nationalism.

But their decision to go for a ‘hard Brexit’ means that the Conservatives are reclaiming the political right from UKIP while advocating yet more free trade.

Dr Pabst asks, should the Conservatives claim a widely anticipated victory on 8 June, if Brexit will help or hinder Theresa May reshape the centre ground of British politics?