Lord Frost’s resignation is a chance to press the reset button with Europe

Editorial: The task of politicians on both sides of the Channel will be to look at our long-term relationship and how it might evolve in the decades ahead

(Brian Adcock)

The resignation of Lord Frost from the cabinet is both a threat and an opportunity. Fortunately for the nation the opportunity is vastly more important than the threat.

The threat is a narrow one, for it is principally to the position of the prime minister. Lord Frost, David Frost, popularly known as the Brexit minister, was responsible for negotiating the terms under which the UK left the European Union, and then was elevated to the cabinet to implement the details of the deal. He has been much in the public eye for his tough negotiating style, particularly over the element of the agreement concerning the UK trade relations with Northern Ireland. But he was much more than that. He was a chum of Boris Johnson, someone who the prime minister enjoyed working with, a soul-mate even, who shared his optimistic vision of how the country could prosper outside of the EU.

The prime minister, already much weakened by his many missteps in recent weeks, is weakened further. One resignation from the cabinet does not dislodge a leader who until recently was leading the opposition in the opinion polls, just as one catastrophic by-election does not dislodge a party with a massive majority in parliament. But the moral blow is huge. The wound, a personal one to the prime minister rather than a broader one to the Conservative Party, will not heal.