Editorial: Unfortunately, the Irish Sea border remains invisible in Tory leadership contest

​Kemi Badenoch is now clear front-runner for the Conservative Party’s leadership contest. The bookmakers consider her the overwhelming favourite to win.

Clearly, the outcome of that contest is important for everyone who lives in the UK. Keir Starmer’s Labour government has got off to a rocky start, despite its huge majority in the House of Commons, and the Tories, though they are currently on the rocks, will be heartened by how quickly the prime minister has run into difficulties.

The new government has not convinced on issues like immigration, that people care deeply about, and its claim that there is a “fiscal black hole” is not considered persuasive by many voters. The approval rating for the current administration is already below the Conservatives’ rating just before the last general election.

Unfortunately, Northern Ireland’s problems have been invisible so far in the Tory leadership debate, just as they have been ignored by the government. The Irish Sea border is an affront to the UK’s constitutional integrity and should be a national issue, but it is a matter that the parties want to ignore.

Earlier this year, Mrs. Badenoch suggested to Conservative members in Northern Ireland that she understood this province, because her husband stood for election here. She referred warmly to the contribution that our region makes to the whole UK.

We must hope that that was not just rhetoric. Just as we must hope that her rival, Robert Jenrick, was in earnest when he claimed that “no self-respecting country” could accept the Irish Sea border.

Whoever wins the contest, a good start on that issue would be to support Jim Allister’s private member’s bill, which proposes replacing the protocol with a system of mutual enforcement.