But Britain’s leader has already found himself at the epicentre of an increasingly ferocious political storm – the likes of which many of his predecessors did not experience in years of premiership – as he battles to deliver Brexit on October 31.

Amid Johnson’s insistence that no deal remained on the table to strengthen his negotiating position in Brussels, his position in Parliament has weakened.

As in-fighting raged within the Conservative ranks over the shape of the UK’s exit from the EU, Johnson’s wafer-thin majority was wiped out when MP Phillip Lee defected to the Liberal Democrats.

A host of Tory MPs, including former Chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond, and the grandson of former Conservative leader Sir Winston Churchill, Nicholas Soames, also had the party whip withdrawn last week after supporting Labour’s no-deal Brexit delay bill. Their sackings further weakened Johnson’s hand, bringing the prospect of an election firmly into view.