Keir Starmer makes his first visit as UK prime minister to Northern Ireland on Monday, with hopes high on both sides of the political divide that relations will improve after years of Brexit turmoil.

Both pro-Irish unity and pro-UK parties expect the Labour leader to bring greater stability and closer engagement to Northern Ireland, as well as patch up relations with Dublin.

“There’s cautious optimism about the new government across the board, but for different reasons,” James Pow, a politics lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, told AFP.

At last Thursday’s election, the largest Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, held on to its seven seats to become the largest Northern Ireland party in the UK parliament in London.