Does Rishi Sunak deserve his moment in the Northern Ireland sun?

It may look as if the prime minister has flown into Belfast to run a victory lap on the shoulders of others – but we should give credit where it’s due, writes John Rentoul

Sunak has finally done the deal that Johnson at one point claimed to have secured: a trade border in the Irish Sea so frictionless it might as well not be there (PA)

Each time the deadlock in Northern Ireland seems impossible to break, and yet each time it has been broken, by heroic leadership, attention to detail and constructive ambiguity.

In 1998, Tony Blair secured a settlement that had eluded his predecessors since Lloyd George’s time. It held together for a while, until David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party was eclipsed by the nay-saying Democratic Unionist Party. In 2007, Blair did it again, bringing Ian Paisley Sr into Belfast’s government with Sinn Fein.

That deal held, more or less, until the strains put on it by Brexit – supported by the DUP but opposed by the majority of the people of Northern Ireland – broke it two years ago.