Northern Ireland’s Assembly and executive are currently defunct after the collapse of the executive in February, when the Democratic Unionist Party withdrew First Minister Paul Givan in protest over the protocol. The party refuses to return until its protocol concerns are addressed. “We all want to see the institutions up and running again,” Sunak replies. “Next year will be 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement and it’s sad that it won’t work,” he says. “Moving into the future starts with fixing the protocol and talking to all the parties and fixing the differences and bringing people together,” Sunak adds. He says he supports the government’s bill to override parts of the protocol, but in the interim he will talk to Europe, Ireland and the French, he says. And with that, Sunak’s time is up and he leaves the stage.
