Yes, the PM might aim small – but his enthusiasm is infectious

‘I’m over the moon!” said the PM, skipping about like a happy deer. He was at a bottling plant in Northern Ireland, pitching the hell out of his Windsor Framework – dancing next to an enormous pile of Coca-cola cans.

The PM is famously addicted to the stuff. He’s got a mouth full of fillings. Fans of Scarface were reminded of Tony Montana, who had also pulled off a clever trade deal, sitting before a mountain of cocaine.

“Say hello to my little friend!” He’s called Rishi Sunak.

Tory MPS haven’t been this happy, or united, for years, and it’s a win for the PM’S leadership style.

The difference between Rishi and Boris is that when Rishi is being positive, one doesn’t assume he is lying. Bojo would tell you he’s delivered world peace and a chicken in every pot, but all you’d wind up with is a handful of magic beans and a border down the Irish Sea.

Sunak aims small – but he actually achieves it, so when he seems excited about the outcome, the enthusiasm is infectious.

“If we get this right,” he gushed, Northern Ireland will be in the “unique position” of having access to the UK and the EU’S market. It’ll be “the world’s most exciting economic zone”.

Just as only Martin Luther King Jr could have a dream or Churchill could fight them on the beaches, only Rishi could find an economic zone “exciting” (and he’s wrong: the drug trafficking hotspots of Thailand and Colombia are considerably more vibrant). Remainers noted that Northern Ireland already had this thrilling arrangement when the UK was still in the EU, and indeed the entire UK enjoyed the zing of single market access before we voted to leave.

As for the ultra-brexiteers – the DUP and ERG – the word around Westminster is that we must “give them time” to process what’s happened.

It’s as if Sunak had dumped them on Valentine’s Day. By text.

Later that afternoon, waiting for the PM to speak to the 1922 Committee, the eurosceptic Peter Bone was eating a packet of Mini Cheddars.

What does he think of the Framework, a journalist asked? “It’s like a budget,” he said; I’ll take my time to read it. And what does the ERG make of it all? I don’t know, I’m not a member. They’re “too Left-wing” for me, he joked.

Sunak danced into the Committee Room. They quizzed him for half an hour; he left with a smile, and no quotes.

Thankfully, there was Steve Baker on hand to deliver the news from Mount Sinai.

The Framework is “as good as we’re going to get”. The MPS are “tremendously supportive”. Words echoed by Daniel Kawczynski, an MP so tall that he looked like two boys standing on each other’s shoulders in a trench coat, trying to blag their way into a bar. “It was the first time in my almost 18-year career… where there were no hostile questions.” The PM seems to have “pulled off something which had been impossible for Boris Johnson”.

Outside Rishi’s widow, a blimp sailed by, its hulk lit up by the words that shone down on Mr Montana: “The World Is Yours .…”

The difference between Rishi and Boris is that when Rishi is positive, one doesn’t assume he is lying