How Sunak is inching to a Northern Ireland deal where those before him failed

Rishi Sunak outside Downing Street on 16 February. EU sources say he was committed to restoring relations with Brussels. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

It has taken three prime ministers, three Northern Ireland secretaries, seven lawsuits by the EU and an epic breakdown of relations with Ireland before surgery was finally performed on one of the deepest wounds caused by Brexit.

The UK and the EU are inching closer to a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol and – if Rishi Sunak pulls it off and faces down opponents in the Democratic Unionist party and European Research Group (ERG) – he will have achieved something that eluded Theresa May and Boris Johnson.