It suits Rishi Sunak to have a row with the Irish Government right now, particularly on the subject of immigration policy – a policy on which he has looked pretty weak and over which the Conservatives are in danger of losing significant support to the populist Reform UK party in a general election due in the next few months.

So, when the Irish complain about the huge rise in the number of people coming to Ireland because of his Rwanda policy, Sunak is happy to trumpet the policy as a success. Better still, by insisting that there is no “returns policy” (what a horrible expression) from Ireland he is further able to insist that his anti-immigration policy is finally paying dividends. This isn’t about picking a long-term, relationship-destabilising fight with Ireland. This is about Sunak avoiding a catastrophic loss of parliamentary seats and ushering in a decade of Labour government.

The Irish Government probably knows this. But it has existing electoral and refugee problems of its own (which seem to be fuelling the local version of the new-generation populism which is rising across the entire EU) and needs to be seen to be standing up to the UK. Or, as the Taoiseach put it a few days ago, “I certainly don’t intend to allow anyone else’s migration policy to affect the integrity of our own one. This country will not in any way, shape or form provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges.”

Meanwhile, some unionist parties in Northern Ireland are enjoying what they think is a rare moment of schadenfreude. They’re still stinging from what they believe was Leo........

© The Irish Times