Rishi Sunak is about to ‘get Brexit done’ – but he still can’t win

Editorial: As leader of his party, the prime minister has little choice but to try to lead it

His party should be celebrating his achievement, yet all Rishi Sunak hears is whingeing (Getty)

Rishi Sunak, barely three months into the job and already the subject of plots to undermine him, must be wondering what he’s done wrong.

According to reports, and the unusually visible signs of progress on the Northern Ireland protocol, the prime minister is about to “get Brexit done” at last. Where Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss stumbled, dissembled and failed, Mr Sunak has prevailed. He is, it appears, within reach of finally completing the negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU that began more than six years ago.

Tired as everyone is of it, there should be some sense of exhilaration, or at least relief, at this imminent diplomatic breakthrough. To get anything like the implementation of the protocol agreed and placed on a sustainable footing, with significant concessions by the EU, is as big a constructive achievement as virtually anything the Conservatives have managed in recent years.