Asked if the prorogation was appropriate, Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

I personally think no-one should be particularly surprised if prime ministers take decisions with political considerations in mind … and in the end the substantive issue here was would parliament have time to pass law taking no-deal off the table, and they did have time to do that.

I think we will see what the judgment is and the Government said that it will be obey the law, but I think the pressing need now, the situation that urgently needs to be resolved, is around the 21 MPs who lost the whip.

Boris deserves great credit, which I don’t think he gets, for the fact that now for the first time in two years we’re talking about the possibility of getting a majority at a general election.

To win an election, indeed to get a deal through Parliament, indeed … to weather the storms of no-deal, you need a united party and that’s why I think what we need is generosity actually on both sides.

From the Government in recognising that as a Conservative Party we have prospered when we have accepted that good Conservatives can have different views on Europe.