But Lord Frost, the former Cabinet Office minister, is among more than 30 MPs and peers who have declared the ban policy “unconservative” and said shale gas production would allow Britain to avoid future energy crises.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Minister for Brexit Opportunities, used a Cabinet meeting in February to call for the ban to be lifted in order to boost Britain’s energy independence, but Boris Johnson resisted the move.

Senior government figures have insisted that the controversial hydraulic fracturing method was banned because it caused earthquakes and presented “unpredictable and unmanageable” risks to local communities.

“Even if new scientific evidence emerged and we lifted the moratorium tomorrow, it would take approximately 10 years before sufficient quantities of gas could be produced for the market,” said a Whitehall source in response to the campaign by MPs.

But some Tory backbenchers have claimed fracking was ended on a “false pretext” after it  emerged that a report commissioned by the Oil and Gas Authority and finalised after the moratorium was put in place described some of the tremors used to justify the moratorium on shale gas exploration in Britain as “almost imperceptible”.

The Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto stated:  “We will not support fracking unless the science shows categorically that it can be done safely.”

The government source added: “It is still the case that fracking won’t lower prices in the short to medium term, but we need to keep options open.”