Prime Minister Rishi Sunak adds weight to talks on Stormont in first visit as PM

Soon after the news broke that Rishi Sunak was coming to the Province for the first time as PM, Number 10 was keen to highlight the economic purpose of his visit – marking the award of a naval shipbuilding contract to Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard – but there is no disguising the fact he has come to Northern Ireland at a time of political crisis.

Last night he held meetings with party leaders at a hotel on the outskirts of Belfast.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that it appears from what Mr Sunak told him there is likely to be an “intensification at the political level” of the talks around the NI Protocol.

Speaking after meeting the PM, he said: “That will be the real test as to whether there is sufficient flexibility on the EU side, because it is clear at the moment, given the limitations of their negotiating mandate, that we’re just not in the space where a deal can be delivered that really addresses the fundamental issues, and that for us means restoring Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market.”

Earlier in the day NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had held what was by all accounts an uninspiring meeting with senior figures from NI’s political parties.