Downing Street has set out its apparent intent to push ahead with a new trading regime for Northern Ireland whether or not the Democratic Unionist party backs the plan – although a leading Conservative Brexiter predicted they ultimately would.
A day after Rishi Sunak announced his “Windsor framework”, an attempt to patch the holes in Boris Johnson’s original post-Brexit protocol for Northern Ireland, a sense of elation among Conservatives was giving way to recognition that there was a long road ahead.
