Lord Frost’s recent speeches were littered with warnings to Mr Johnson over his approach to Covid-19 restrictions and the economy that appear to have gone unheeded.

In a speech in June, Mr Johnson’s former Foreign Office adviser said: “I personally don’t want to accept that the levels of state involvement in our lives and in the economy we have seen in the last year are in any way normal. I want to get back to the old normal as soon as we can.”

Less than a month ago Lord Frost used a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher conference to issue a barbed warning about Mr Johnson’s approach to the economy, saying: “The formula for success as a country is well known. Low taxes – I agree with the Chancellor, as he said in his Budget speech, our goal must be to reduce taxes; light-touch and proportionate regulation, whatever our policy objectives. Free trade – of course – simultaneously increasing consumer choice while reducing consumer costs. Ensuring competition stops complacency – keeping our economy fit and responsive to innovation and progress abroad. And personal freedom and responsibility.”

Again, the peer returned to the theme of “state direction and control during the pandemic”, describing the measures to date as “unavoidable”.

But he added: “That cannot and must not last forever, and I am glad that it is not. I am very happy that free Britain, or at least merry England, is probably now the free-est country in the world as regards Covid restrictions.” A few weeks later when Mr Johnson adopted mask rules and a form of vaccine passports, Lord Frost reached the end of the road.