How is Sunak succeeding in a deal where three UK prime ministers have failed?

Few would have expected the technocratic, cautious PM to be the leader able to help close one of the deepest wounds of Brexit

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 DUP and European Research Group (ERG) – he will have achieved something that eluded Theresa May and Boris Johnson.