AS BORIS Johnson bicycled nonchalantly into the Palace of Westminster yesterday, he could be forgiven for thinking how a meeting with Donald Trump later this week might offer the sweetest act of revenge he could exact on his erstwhile Cabinet chum Theresa May.

This thought might have dropped into the straw-helmeted head of the former Foreign Secretary after the US President insisted ahead of his arrival in Britain tomorrow: “Boris Johnson is a friend of mine. He’s been very, very supportive and very nice to me. Maybe I’ll speak to him when I get over there.”

At 69 David Davis may expect Brexit Secretary to have been his last big post in Government, Mr Johnson, 54, might still harbour ambitions after the top job and could think a grip-and-grin moment for the media with The Donald might not do him any harm.

But, of course, in the real world, it just might.

Johnson's tirade against the Prime Minister’s Chequers Plan – making Britain an EU “colony,” creating the “death” of the Brexit dream, and raising the “white flags” in the face of the European Commission – appeared to be an unleashing of pent up frustration against Mrs May’s approach to the talks with Brussels.

At times, his resignation letter read like one of his outlandish Daily Telegraph columns, which he could now use to throw poisoned arrows Maywards.

While there are still a number of admirers within the Tory ranks, who believe that Johnson is the man to lead Britain into a glorious new Brexit dawn, it feels like a diminishing number.

And after the debacle of his previous aborted attempt to become Prime Minster and his more recent Kabul hop to avoid voting on Heathrow expansion, a number of Tories believe he is a busted flush.

Yet Mrs May appointed the most undiplomatic of politicians to be Britain’s top diplomat.

His many bloopers include joking about “dead bodies” getting in the way of businesses investing in Libya and erroneously confirming Iranian claims that jailed British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been spreading propaganda against Tehran.

He also compared a traditional Maori greeting with a 'Glasgow kiss' and drew a likeness between former French President Francois Hollande and a World War Two prisoner of war camp guard, who might want to “administer punishment beatings” to anyone thinking of escaping the EU.

Indeed, Mr Johnson’s departure from the world of international diplomacy this week received a mixed response.

Julie Bishop, Australia’s Foreign Minister, said she had developed a very strong rapport with the London MP. “We will miss Boris in his role as Foreign Secretary,” she declared.

But John McKendrick, the Attorney General of Anguilla in the Caribbean, was rather less complimentary.

The official shared an image of himself with Mr Johnson taken when the then Foreign Secretary visited the British Overseas Territory in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.

Mr McKendrick, who ran for Labour and lost in the 2007 Scottish parliamentary election and the 2010 General Election, said: “Meeting the worst Foreign Secretary we’ve ever had amongst the destruction of Hurricane Irma in Anguilla. Disinterested and out of his depth he cared nothing for our situation. Good riddance.”

True to form perhaps Mr Johnson was controversial to the last; posing for an official photograph of himself signing his own resignation letter.

Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, was incredulous. “Look at that guy Boris Johnson, I mean, he’s got a career ahead of him on ‘Love Yourself Island’. He’s the only politician in history who posed to sign his own resignation letter.”

His Labour colleague David Lammy was incensed, tweeting: “The fact that @BorisJohnson arranged for a photoshoot of himself signing his resignation letter for the front pages tells us everything we need to know about him.

“Self-obsessed, vain egomaniac devoid of substance caring only about himself and advancing his career. Good riddance.”