Things haven’t been running smoothly for the former diplomat handpicked by Boris Johnson to lead the stuttering trade talks with the European Union.
Lord Frost has been at the forefront of the negotiations with the EU, which even the PM warned last week look more likely to fail than succeed.
The one positive after another tense weekend is that the post-Brexit trade deal talks are still continuing. At times in the last few days that had seemed unlikely. There is also fresh hope of a deal after Boris Johnson and Europe’s top official Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “go the extra mile” and continue discussions beyond Sunday’s initial deadline.
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But time is tight for a deal to be reached and approved by the end of the month when current arrangements expire.
The Office for Budget Responsibility financial watchdog has suggested that a no-deal outcome could wipe 2 per cent off gross domestic product – a measure of the size of the economy – in 2021 (on top of the economic impact of a Brexit even if a deal were in place).
Experts have indicated that could be around £45 billion. WTO rules will mean 海角视频 firms will face tariffs on many goods traded with the EU and the addition of some quota restrictions and customs checks.
There are already reports of supermarkets stockpiling, shoppers being warned they might not be able to buy some of the food they are used to, and businesses saying they haven’t a clue how to prepare.
Unlike his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier, David Frost is a low-key figure who largely shuns the cameras and rarely speaks in public.
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He is, reports the PA, a Brexit true believer who the Prime Minister believes has the steely negotiating skills needed to deliver a deal.
Born in Derby in 1965 and educated at Nottingham High School, he went on to study French and history at Oxford, where he gained a first.
After university he entered the Foreign Office, where he was fast-tracked for promotion, including an early posting to Brussels in 1993.
It was there, apparently, that the seeds of his Euroscepticism were sown as he became disenchanted with the growing European “super state” – although he kept his views well hidden from colleagues.
The young diplomat’s posting also coincided with Boris Johnson’s time as a journalist in the Belgian capital, where he made his name with articles panning the European bureaucracy – although it is not recorded whether the two men knew each other.
Mr Frost’s rise through the Foreign Office culminated in his appointment at the age of 41 as the 海角视频 ambassador to Copenhagen, followed by a secondment to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as Britain’s most senior trade policy official.
His seemingly smooth career trajectory however took an unexpected turn in 2013 when he left the Diplomatic Service after more than 25 years to become chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association.
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His views on the EU were becoming more overt as he became a member of the advisory council of the Eurosceptic think tank Open Europe.
When Boris Johnson was appointed foreign secretary by Theresa May in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum, he brought in Mr Frost as his political special adviser.
Three years later, when Johnson succeeded May as Prime Minister – having done much to make her position in No 10 untenable – he again turned to Mr Frost, making him his chief adviser and negotiator on Europe.
In a further sign of his confidence in him, in June 2020 Mr Johnson announced he would become National Security Adviser when Sir Mark Sedwill stepped down in September – although he has yet to take up his duties while talks with Brussels continue. He was also made a life peer.
An ally of Mr Johnson’s controversial former chief adviser Dominic Cummings, he nevertheless did not follow him out of No 10 when he dramatically departed last month in an internal power struggle.