Only Liz Truss is clear in her opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol. She needs to be in last two of the Conservative leadership race

In the first of the Conservative Party leadership televised debates on Friday night, on Channel Four, the Northern Ireland Protocol was barely mentioned.

The five remaining Tory hopefuls were not asked about the Irish Sea border.

Then, last night, on ITV, there was the same omission. The only candidate who in fact made reference to the protocol was Liz Truss. Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat both agreed that Brexit was done, even though Northern Ireland (in effect) remains in the EU for trade purposes, with disastrous consequences for the Province’s place in the UK.

Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt said nothing about it.

Earlier, the Sunday Times reported sources saying that Ms Mordaunt would offer to keep a border in the Irish Sea in a bid to have a new, pragmatic relationship with the EU.

If early polling among Tory MPs was a foretaste of what will happen in the next stages of that contest from today, Mr Sunak and Ms Mordaunt will get to the last two in the race, and so be decided on by Conservative members.

That would potentially mean two supporters of the protocol being the only choice for prime minister.

If they were facing each other in the last two, their battle with each other would be made easier by the fact that they seem to agree on the protocol. Neither has repudiated the internal UK barrier in an explicit way.

It is essential that Tory MPs today realise what is at stake and make sure that Ms Truss is in the final run-off, so there is a proper choice on such a vital matter.

After all, the Conservatives make much play of the fact that they are a unionist party.

Brexit dealings have been made so easy for the EU since 2016. At all stages in the UK withdrawal, Brussels has not only been able to see how many allies it has (in politics, business, media, etc) but also to see weaknesses within the Tory party.

That is the case again in this leadership race. But it is not yet too late to send a signal that the party is not in fact weak on the Union.

MPs will be able to do that today if enough of them reward Ms Truss’s stance on the protocol.