A Belfast court ruling exposes quite how far the prime minister has wandered from the pragmatic governing ethos he once espoused
The Windsor framework was Rishi Sunak’s first significant achievement as prime minister and will probably turn out to be the last. A deal to settle problems with the way that Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement applied to Northern Ireland was achieved by rejecting the former prime minister’s maverick, confrontational approach and embracing instead an ethos of diplomatic pragmatism.
But no sooner had Mr Sunak demonstrated the merit in honouring international treaties than he abandoned that method with regard to immigration policy. His pledge to “stop the boats” ferrying refugees across the Channel produced acts of parliament that defy the European convention on human rights, which happens also to be integral to the Good Friday agreement underpinning peace in Northern Ireland.
