Can the tide be turned?

SLOWLY, but increasingly surely, Rishi Sunak is pulling back on the forays of his predecessors as he seeks to re-establish his party as a credible force in British politics. He may not succeed, but he has brought a sense of reality to the Government. It isn’t, of course, a quick fix. The spoilers are still in the wings.

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As the veteran right-wing MP David Davis warned last week, there remains a tightly knit group of MPs, blinded by their unwavering commitment to Boris Johnson, who can brook no other leader. They overlap with the wider set of Conservatives who see any attempt to improve relationships with the rest of Europe as heresy, even when it is clearly a vital component of Britain’s economic resurgence. Managing this obstructive element will take a degree of skill and strength the Prime Minister has still to prove.

Nevertheless, so far so good. In the House of Lords, the Government has stalled the Report Stage of the peculiarly damaging Irish Protocol Bill. This will allow proper negotiations on trade in Northern Ireland without Britain legislating to contravene international law and break our word, solemnly given.