Boris Johnson has banned ministers from attending the Davos summit next month, in a nod to the former Labour voters who propelled him to office.

The prime minister, a frequent guest at the summit, described it in 2013 as “a great big constellation of egos involved in massive mutual orgies of adulation”. He will not be at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort this year, however, and has told other ministers to stay away.

“Our focus is on delivering for the people, not champagne with billionaires,” a government source said, underlining the effort to distance Mr Johnson from the global business and political elite.

Mr Johnson attended Davos every year when he was the mayor of London, from 2009 to 2014