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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Peter Walker Political correspondent

Sunak grapples with NI protocol puzzle but the stakes are different to 2019

Theresa May laughs in the Commons while Rishi Sunak speaks during PMQs.
Rishi Sunak faces a tortuous political path reminiscent of Theresa May’s doomed struggle to secure a Brexit deal. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK parliament/AFP/Getty Images

For a Brexit-minded MP, the parallels may seem striking: an electorally embattled prime minister trying to push through a controversial Northern Ireland deal in the face of Tory and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) scepticism. But one thing has changed: this is 2023, not 2019.

Theresa May’s struggles with Brexit, and her tumbling popularity with voters, led to her being forced out as prime minister by Conservative backbenchers. While no one would dispute that Rishi Sunak faces perhaps his toughest ever political test, the stakes for him are if not necessarily lower then perhaps different.

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