Sir Jeffrey Donaldson: “The Protocol debris” still stands in the way of a return to government.

The DUP leader said the US president's trip, which saw him arrive late on Tuesday and leave last night, offered “a welcome renewal of Northern Ireland’s ties with the United States”.

But he warned that, given the DUP's ongoing boycott of Stormont, some politicians are demanding a return to a “majority rule”-style government which would exclude his party, and stressed that what is needed instead are “arrangements on the Protocol that all communities can support”.

President Biden's visit consisted of a single engagement in Belfast on Wednesday, where he (pictured, inset) gave a speech that largely satisfied many unionists because it stressed that a return to Stormont was a choice for local politicians to make, however much he may wish for it.

But the visit was also marked by a blunder when he mixed up the All Blacks, the national rugby team of New Zealand, with the Black and Tans, the anti-Irish independence militia of the 1920s.

After giving a speech last night in Ballina, in the west of the Republic, he flew back to the USA.

Meanwhile yesterday, UUP peer Sir Reg Empey insisted that “the DUP boycott has failed” and it was time to “face up” to the fact that it merely feeds into the republican idea that Northern Ireland is a failed state.

The DUP hit back, with Jonathan Buckley saying Sir Reg’s “attitude would never have led to a renegotiation of the Protocol”.