Boris Johnson ‘repeatedly erupted’ over Theresa May’s Brexit proposals in order to get his point across in public, but says ‘that was nothing compared to what went on in private’

Since Boris Johnson resigned from the cabinet in July over Theresa May’s Brexit plans, he has been trying to organise a game of tennis against the fellow Old Etonian whose political career he ended — David Cameron. “He’s off games,” the former foreign secretary complains. “He claims to have some injury every time I offer him a game. I think he is rightly apprehensive. He keeps saying he has got something wrong with his shoulder or his wrist.”

Johnson’s ability to make prime ministers apprehensive will be on display again this week when he descends like a bull elephant in a Lalique boutique upon the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. On Friday he produced another 4,000-word opus on Brexit. A “chuck Chequers” rally will follow