Lord Frost was reported to have offered his resignation last week but was persuaded to stay on until January. He decided to leave immediately after news of his departure leaked last night. A Downing Street source told the Sunday Express they were shocked by the news and had been taken off guard, even though Lord Frost had discussed it earlier in the week with the Prime Minister.
He is fed up with Frost, according to a source. He feels that he has taken Brexit as far as he can after working on it for two years. He feels that this is the end of the road. The Cabinet Office minister who negotiated the deal and is leading the talks on the controversial Northern Ireland protocol is said by allies to be disillusioned with the direction of the Government according to an ally. The blow to Mr Johnson losing a key minister comes after he was humiliated last week with a massive defeat to the Lib Dems in North Shropshire by-election and 101 Tory MPs rebelling against his attempts to bring in vaccine passports. Major donors have told the Sunday Express that they are pulling funding from the Conservative Party until Mr Johnson leaves as Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has 100 days to sort out his operation or face moves to push him out, according to MPs.
The introduction of plan B went against the promise of irreversible unlocking in dealing with covid, according to a colleague. He is frustrated by Mr Johnson's reluctance to trigger Article 16 in the Northern Ireland talks ending the controversial protocol and reuniting it with the rest of the UK. He was also said to be one of the ministers who vehemently disagreed with the tax rises brought in by Rishi Sunak, including the care tax adding to National Insurance, which broke an election commitment not to raise taxes. There was unhappiness about the Government's net zero climate change policy.
This is a body blow to the PM and the Government and any true Conservative, Lord Frost's concerns are exactly the same as many backbenchers and after this week's by-election it appears also the former Conservative voters in North Shropshire. Nigel Farage told Sunday Express: "I have admired much of what Lord Frost has tried to do. He believes in the importance of Brexit and true conservative values. Boris Johnson believes in nothing other than himself. The end may be coming sooner than anyone can imagine. According to Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, this is a body blow to the PM and the Government and any true Conservative, Lord Frost's concerns are exactly the same as many backbenchers and after this week s by-election it appears also the former Conservative voters in North Shropshire. Robert Oulds of the eurosceptic Bruges Group said that Lord Frost had repeatedly allowed himself to get outmanoeuvred by the EU. He has gone before the failure of his mission to implement Article 16, end the Protocol and his betrayal of Northern Ireland, where he allowed Ulster to remain a colony of the EU.