As Rishi Sunak heads for political doom after a disastrous election campaign, it is worth pointing out that as far as Ireland is concerned he was a decent and honourable British prime minister who put a huge effort into restoring good relations between the two countries.
Having inherited the Brexit mess created by his four Tory predecessors, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, he calmly set about building a new relationship with the EU and Ireland through the Windsor Framework and followed that up with an unwavering and ultimately successful drive to get Stormont restored.
Part of the reason the British right and its media cheerleaders hate Sunak so much is that he abandoned the futile jingoistic posturing of his predecessors and, despite his initial support for Brexit, found a way to establish trust with EU leaders.
He managed to win the confidence of taoisigh Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar, as well as persuading the leaders of unionism and nationalism in Northern Ireland to work together after a two-year stand-off. That was no easy feat but, with the support of former northern secretary Julian Smith, his unwavering commitment got it done.
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In the course of detailed talks with the EU, most of the rigid Protocol rules that infuriated unionists were watered down so as to ensure that trade between Britain and Northern Ireland would be as seamless as possible.
Far from getting political credit at home for the skill he showed in persuading the EU to make significant changes to the Protocol, and to some extent restoring the UK’s reputation at international level in the process, Sunak was assailed by the right wing of his own party.
In interviews for the recently published paperback edition of my book on the Brexit talks, both Martin and Varadkar paid tribute to Sunak’s professionalism and skill in the way he approached the apparently intractable problem he inherited with the Protocol.
Varadkar said that as well as seeking changes in the detail, Sunak was anxious that the term “protocol” should be dropped from any deal. “There were two elements to it. One was obviously the changes themselves in substance, and there are lots, but also the desire to present it differently.”
As long as a hard border was avoided, Varadkar was not too bothered about what the deal was called, or how it was presented. “And I did feel that Rishi Sunak was really trying here and it would be necessary for him to be able to show that he had achieved something that his predecessor maybe hadn’t,” he added.
Before his first phone conversation with the prime minister, Varadkar was told by his officials that Sunak was highly intelligent and really on top of his brief, whatever the topic. “I definitely found Rishi very businesslike, very personable but also very much across the small print. Something that people would have said to me was that before you talk to him be sure you’re on top of all the details. He is the kind of guy who will probably know the ins and outs of something like the EU VAT directive so you better be fully prepared before you talk to him.”
Martin takes a similar view on the substantive nature of the changes. “Everyone told unionism that there could be no movement on some issues but in the end there was. Separate channels for goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland, trusted trader schemes, the use of technology and data had all been ruled out but, in the end, they were agreed.”
As part of his drive to get a deal, Sunak took the trouble during his early days in office to meet Martin at the British-Irish Council, one of the institutions established under the Belfast Agreement. He was the first prime minister to bother attending the council since 2005.
Of course Sunak’s work to rebuild a working relationship with the EU and sort out the problems created for Northern Ireland by the Brexit deal cuts no ice with the British electorate but history may be a kinder judge of his stewardship than contemporary popular opinion.
It will be fascinating to see how Keir Starmer tackles the deep-seated problems Brexit has created for the UK. He has spoken about developing a closer relationship with the EU, but has ruled out a return to the single market or the customs union. On the face of it he is just as deluded as the Tories in the early days of the Brexit negotiations if he imagines the EU will agree to a deal that would give the UK the benefits of the single market without its responsibilities. This approach was roundly rejected by Michel Barnier, who dismissed it as “cherry picking”.
It is possible that once in office Starmer will come up with a more realistic approach to reversing the impact of Brexit on the UK, but his record gives little grounds for confidence that he will do so.
Stephen Collins is the author of Ireland’s Call: How Brexit Got Done