Rishi Sunak must defy Brexit ‘puritans’ to get protocol deal, top lawyers warn

Rishi Sunak should defy the “purist ideology” of hardline Brexiteers to solve the row over the Northern Ireland protocol and other post-Brexit problems, top lawyers have argued.

In a paper shared with The Independent, former EU court lawyers said the prime minister had to show “political courage, in the national interest, to displease a faction of Brexit purists”.

Eleanor Sharpston KC, former advocate general at the Court of Justice of the European Union, and Ian Forrester KC, a former judge at the same EU court, said it was time for “pragmatic good sense” to prevail in order to repair ties with Brussels.