It seems as certain as anything can be in politics that Keir Starmer will be prime minister six weeks from now.

His government will pursue a closer alignment with Europe that should reverse the post-Brexit mechanisms driving Britain and Northern Ireland apart. The Labour leader has already pledged to use the 2025 review of the UK-EU trade deal to seek a veterinary agreement, which would remove most sea border checks.

He says he will scrap the Rwanda scheme on “day one” and cooperate with the EU on immigration. That should scupper ideas of a ‘people sea border’ and prevent the emergence of a rights sea border, when combined with his obvious commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.

There is a long way to go but the direction of travel is clear. Much unionist and nationalist reaction will be entertainingly strangulated. The DUP still cannot bring itself to advocate for a soft Brexit or even to embrace Labour, despite all the Tories have done to it. Although the UUP has a better Brexit policy it is anyone’s guess how much of the party supports it.

Tory Casement pledge almost out of extra time - The Irish News view

Patrick Murphy: If we really want to unite Ireland, Narrow Water is a bridge too far

The SDLP and Sinn Féin say they oppose the Conservatives and Brexit, yet they hardly want the damage to the union to be undone.

Appropriately enough, getting what you claim to want but do not want is the worst of both worlds.

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The UK has held a general election in early July only once in modern times, straight after the war in 1945, so the impact of the Twelfth on Northern Ireland........

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