Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman rates his former colleague Boris Johnson’s new memoir “a racy, charming romp” that also highlights the ex-prime minister’s many character flaws.

Writing in the FT, Mr Norman says the title of the former Prime Minster’s new 800-page Unleashed, published this week, “is surely ironic, since the whole point of Johnson is that he has never recognised a leash of any kind”.

And while it is “in places wildly funny”, Mr Johnson’s account of his ascent to and the fall from power “is unlikely to charm the unconverted, and some readers will find it little more than a picaresque joker’s journey that leaves them cold”, Mr Norman writes.

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He grants his former parliamentary colleague “had moments of undoubted greatness” during Covid and in his “immediate and vigorous support” for the invaded Ukraine.

But Mr Johnson’s account “does not touch on his fibbing, abuse of patronage, poor judgment of character, casualness with detail”, while his “unwillingness to interest himself in the economics of modern government is particularly notable”.

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The two have a considerable political history together going back to Mr Norman’s support for Mr Johnson’s successful bid to become London mayor in 2007.

But near the end of Mr Johnson’s premiership in June 2022 Mr Norman, then a government minister, wrote to withdraw his support for Mr Johnson as leader, accusing him of “simply seeking to campaign, to keep changing the subject and to create political and cultural dividing lines mainly for your own advantage”, while “attempting to centralise power in 10 Downing Street”.

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He later said during the subsequent leadership contest that keeping Mr Johnson in place would be “catastrophic”.

Mr Johnson reportedly received an advance of over half a million pounds for Unleashed. It is already top of online retailer Amazon’s sales charts, where it is selling for £15, half the recommended retail price.

Mr Norman is meanwhile backing Kemi Badenoch in what is now a three-horse race for the Conservative party leadership.