After ‘getting Brexit done’, what next for Rishi Sunak?

Sunak’s role isn’t only to find the answers, it is also to come up with the questions, writes Marie Le Conte

The Northern Ireland protocol has been a thorn in the country’s side for years now (PA)

It is odd to think that there is a world in which Theresa May could have been remembered as the great Brexit prime minister; the woman who took us out of the European Union for good. Had she won even one of her roughly 87 votes in parliament, she could have earned her place in history, forever remembered as the leader who ushered in the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

It is amusing to think that Boris Johnson very nearly got there – very nearly Got Brexit Done – but in the end he couldn’t quite manage it. Johnson arguably has many qualities, but attention to detail is not one of them. He gave his party the majority it desperately needed, but still, some loose ends remained by the time he left No 10.

As for Liz Truss... well. Her premiership lasted for about as long as this sentence. There’s no need to dwell. The point is, it is now Rishi Sunak’s turn to be in the spotlight. To quote from Hamilton – a sin in 2023, I know, I know – history has its eyes on him. At the time of writing, he is on the cusp of doing what three prime ministers failed to do before him: actually finalising the Brexit deal.

The Northern Ireland protocol has been a thorn in the country’s side for years now, and it currently looks as if Sunak will be able to pull it out. He will have to reckon with his own mutinous benches, and with the troublemakers of the DUP, but the wind seems to have turned. The majority of Conservatives seem, at least for the time being, ready to fall into line. In any case, Keir Starmer has already announced that the PM could rely on Labour votes to pass his deal through the Commons.

It is good news, of course, but hardly the end of the story. As with the break-up of a relationship, agreeing on who gets to keep the cat and the rice-cooker is one thing, but deciding what happens afterwards is an even bigger question. Will you remain friends? If so, how close? Separately, who do you each want to become now you are no longer an item? And so on, and so forth.

There is a world in which May could have been the first post-Brexit prime minister, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, Sunak will now be the one tasked with looking ahead. It won’t be an easy task.

Defining the future of the relationship between Britain and the European Union will be tough, because the future is, by definition, wide open. How should the country and the bloc work together on, say, culture and the arts? Going forward, which links should be recreated, which ones severed, and which ones reimagined? What can we collaborate on?

Sunak’s role isn’t only to find the answers, it is also to come up with the questions. The UK is the first country ever to leave the EU, so there is no roadmap, especially when it comes to the smaller projects, and the things that do not have to pass into law.

Building bridges with specific countries will also be crucial, and so it is excellent timing that the prime minister will be meeting with Emmanuel Macron in only a few weeks. If everything goes well, the first Franco-British summit to happen in years will mark the beginning of Britain’s new era.

Still, a niggling feeling remains. Sunak is a technocrat by nature, and is currently governing as one. He is also in charge of unruly masses of Conservative MPs, who love nothing more than to threaten mutiny whenever they get cross. He is not a big ideas man, and the Tories, at the moment, are not a big ideas party.

Perhaps he (and they) will surprise us all and use the time left before the next election to construct a whole new relationship with the continent, but it seems unlikely. Instead, one could much more easily imagine Starmer coming in, wiping the slate clean, then getting to work.

It isn’t all bad news for Sunak; he may not be remembered as the man who opened a new chapter for the country, but there is still space in history for the one who closed a difficult one for good.