Rishi Sunak is an impressive political leader but his suitability to be prime minister is undermined by his stance on the Northern Ireland Protocol

A former Ulster Unionist leader has said that too much hope is being placed in Liz Truss and her Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.

Lord Empey says that the legislation, which is progressing through Westminster, is a “confidence trick” that “gives power to ministers to do ... things ... they’re not compelled to do”.

As is so often the case Lord Empey gives a blunt and fundamentally sound analysis of yet another of the many appalling things that keep happening to unionism.

Much of the NI Protocol Bill relates to the establishment of latent powers, that might or might not in fact be triggered.

It is a thoroughly inadequate response to the disaster and betrayal of an Irish Sea border for internal UK trade, in order to appease pan nationalism and to ensure that there is not so much as an extra CCTV camera put up at the land border.

But having no protocol bill would be a far worse outcome than having it.

The planed new law might end up being particularly important in the future if growing UK-EU divergence threatens to create a deepening divide between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

It is therefore alarming, but not surprising given previous reports about Rishi Sunak, that two cabinet ministers have described the former chancellor as having been “backward-leaning on moving ahead with legislation to fix issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol”.

Mr Sunak is a hugely impressive politician and on so many levels seems like a potential prime minister.

But on one core issue he is unsuited to Downing Street. He seems willing to accept the sort of internal UK barrier that Theresa May and Boris Johnson said no PM could accept.

Both those two premiers in their differing ways breached their own pledge on this matter. The last thing we need, after the problems caused by the backstop then protocol, is another prime minister who seems to be malleable on the integrity of the United Kingdom.