There’s an old joke about how to tell when politicians are lying: it’s when their lips move. But body language experts say there’s a more subtle giveaway: touching the nose. William Hague does this just once when he claims to know nothing about branding during a discussion about David Cameron’s decision last week to change the Tory logo from the traditional blue flaming torch to a green oak tree. But the skill with which Hague has rebranded himself tells another story. From baseball cap-wearing dork to Westminster’s most feted debater, the transformation has been remarkable.

Not long ago he was written off as a failed anorak who flunked the Tories’ chances with cringey stunts. But his popularity now is such that in the last Tory leadership campaign gamblers gave him an 8-1 chance of being the next leader when he was not even standing.

He is such a hot property on television shows and the after-dinner speech circuit that he was making close to £1m a year as a backbencher. But for now all that is having to take a back seat to his day job, as shadow foreign secretary, after Cameron persuaded him to return to the front bench.

“I’ve not stopped all that completely, but I’m having to be much more selective. I’m only doing about a third of the number I was,” he says ruefully. He particularly misses appearing on Have I Got News for You.

But perhaps for the first time since his return from political exile, Hague is throwing himself wholeheartedly into frontline politics. Astutely, he’s come back just when things are starting to get fun. “I’m enjoying it very much, because it’s a completely different atmosphere. It’s quite different being in politics when there really is a good chance of winning.”

The past fortnight has been a sharp reminder of what it’s like to be back in the firing line. Hague has found himself at the centre of a firestorm over his position on the Lebanon crisis. In a highly significant choice of words, he criticised some Israeli attacks on Lebanon as “disproportionate” — a term Downing Street and the White House have resolutely refused to use — infuriating Jewish supporters.

It prompted Lord Kalms, former Conservative treasurer, to label him an “ignorant armchair critic” whose position was “downright dangerous”. But Hague has no regrets.

“Our concern about Israeli actions has been those that appear to have been only tenuously or unrelated to Hezbollah, which includes things like the bombing of Christian areas of Beirut, the total destruction of aspects of the infrastructure, attacks on what appear to be unrelated areas of Lebanon or factories that produce peaceful goods that are nothing to do with armaments. We’ve said that those elements of Israeli action have been disproportionate.”

He argues that while Hezbollah started it, giving Israel “every right to defend itself”, Israel must retain the moral high ground. “In fighting terror, whether it be Israel fighting against terrorists or how this country or the United States conducts itself, we’ve got to show that we retain higher values than they do. They are the ones who make indiscriminate attacks on civilians. We have to uphold our highest possible standards.”

It’s a theme he began earlier this year when he warned the White House it was losing its moral authority because of Guantanamo Bay. “The reason we’re worried about Israel is that we don’t want Israel to lose the moral high ground in this,” he explains.

His line is winding up influential Jewish supporters of the Tory party — one leading donor is so incensed he is said to be muttering about giving his money to Labour instead. The Conservative Friends of Israel, a hugely influential sector of the party, is incandescent. Hague is unruffled.

“We’re not going to frame foreign policy on the grounds of who’s going to get upset. If we tried to do that, we’d never be able to say anything at all,” he shrugs. With the air of someone trying to be as diplomatic as possible, he adds: “I welcome the input of Conservative Friends of Israel, but the important thing to understand is that does not mean we always agree with every action of Israel.”

It’s all a bit of a shock, coming from someone with a longstanding reputation as a hawk. Is this new softly, softly approach to the political underdog — in this case Lebanon — all part of the great Tory rebranding? There’s a pregnant pause.