Former Brexit negotiator David Frost has revealed he is in talks with Conservative associations about standing to be a Tory MP.
The peer has become a totemic figure on the Tory right since quitting as Boris Johnson’s Europe adviser, and is tipped for a powerful position in government if Liz Truss succeeds in her bid for 10 Downing Street.
He made clear in an interview with The House magazine that he was interested in joining a Truss administration, but indicated he did not think it right for a senior role in cabinet to be held for a protracted period by an unelected figure.
If he put himself forward for election to the Commons, he would have to give up the peerage granted him by Johnson in 2020.
However, there would be no bar to Ms Truss appointing him to her cabinet as a member of the House of Lords.
Lord Frost told The House that he had spent several months discussing where he could stand as a parliamentary candidate.
His comments suggest that he would wait until the next general election – expected in 2024 – to make a bid for the Commons, rather than take the opportunity of any upcoming by-election, following a series of disastrous results for Tories.
“I’m still making my mind up about it,” said Lord Frost.
“If you are going to be in politics where you actually have a finger on the buttons of power then you should really be elected.
“I don’t think our system works very well for prolonged periods of time when a senior minister is not in the elected house. It’s fundamental fairness… that’s how the constitution works.”
Lord Frost led post-Brexit negotiations with the EU and won praise from Tory right-wingers for what they saw as a “hardline” approach on the Northern Ireland protocol.
He quit the Cabinet Office job in December amid speculation that he was frustrated at Mr Johnson’s reluctance to press ahead with a suspension of the protocol which might provoke a trade war with the EU.
At the time, he cited opposition to the government’s policy direction on Covid restrictions.
But he confirmed today that he had felt frustrated by the PM’s failure to take a harder line with Brussels.
“I was definitely arguing internally for a more robust approach to these questions, and getting stymied a bit,” he said.
“Would that have forced me out on its own? Not necessarily. I think I felt we were still pushing and doing the right thing.”
Suspicions that Lord Frost was seeking a return to frontline politics were fuelled when he published a wide-ranging essay earlier this month in which he called for tax cuts, the protection of Brexit in law and the cancellation of HS2, denounced “medieval” wind-farm technology and demanded an “anti-woke” pushback against “identity politics”.
