The prospect of a visit to Northern Ireland from President Joe Biden visit must not be allowed to dictate protocol policy

It has seemed clear for months that London’s hard line on the Northern Ireland Protocol has been softening.

The Conservative and Unionist Party’s attitude to the Irish Sea border has been in constant flux. Boris Johnson insisted after January 2021, when the protocol came into being, that there was no such frontier.

By the summer such a position had become untenable and Lord Frost, who had helped negotiate the UK departure from the EU, unveiled a plan to overhaul the trade barrier. By that autumn, Mr Johnson seemed to be retreating from this tougher approach.

For much of this year, London seemed to be returning to robust demands of the EU via its NI Protocol Bill. Liz Truss said east-west trade was as important as north-south.

But unionists never really trusted the Tories, who had let them down badly in 2019. In any event, Mr Johnson and Ms Truss were ejected as prime minister.

Rishi Sunak taking over has helped stabilise the chaos. But the UK is still in serious economic difficulty and now has a reduced negotiating hand with Brussels, and Brussels knows it.

The Sunday Times has reported that Mr Sunak is confident of a deal with the EU and has put the protocol bill on hold. This is alarming if true. That legislation already represented a major unionist compromise – it was a curtailing of the Irish Sea border, not its removal.

It is said that President Joe Biden wants to be in NI for the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement. US presidents will always be welcome here but that should not create a timetable to capitulate on matters of sovereignty.

Irish nationalists, facilitated by a weak London, prevented NI from celebrating its own centenary in 2021. The 25th anniversary of 1998 should not be allowed to be a more important moment that NI itself reaching 100.