Boris Johnson almost drowned while on holiday in Scotland after being attacked by midges, according to an extract of his memoir.

Writing in his book, Mr Johnson recalls how he travelled to a remote cottage on the Isle of Skye for a short holiday with his wife Carrie and their newborn child in August 2020.

As reported in The Irish Times, the former prime minister said that, after being attacked by midges, he took to the water in an inflatable Argos kayak to escape the wee beasties.

After the tide saw him swept about 600 yards away from the shoreline, Mr Johnson said he tried in vain to paddle back to safety.

“I had to choose between two bad options. I could either get swept out to sea and drown, or at least trigger a ludicrous coastguard rescue; or I could ship the oar, abandon the kayak and swim for it", he wrote. 

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Eventually he put on a lifejacket, abandoned the kayak and swam for shore.

One of his protection team then swam out to help him. 

Meanwhile, according to another extract of his memoir, Johnson believed he “might have carked it” when he was in intensive care with Covid without the “skills and experience” of his nurses.

He spent several days in intensive care with Covid in April 2020. In the extract of his Unleashed book published in the Daily Mail, he described not wanting to fall asleep on his first night in intensive care “partly in case I never woke up”.

He also recalled feeling “rotten” with “guilt” and “political embarrassment” in the days before he was admitted to hospital.

The nurses caring for Mr Johnson on his first night in intensive care were “Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal,” he recalled.

Following his release from hospital, the then prime minister spent some time at Chequers with his now-wife Carrie, and he recalled joining in with the clap for the NHS on a Thursday evening.

“I clapped with deep emotion because my lungs were telling me that I had been through something really pretty nasty, and that if it hadn’t been for Jenny and Luis, fiddling with those oxygen tubes all night with all their skill and experience, I think I might have carked it,” he wrote.

Mr Johnson's memoir will go on sale next week.

Publisher HarperCollins said the book would be “honest, unrestrained and deeply revealing”, covering Mr Johnson’s time as mayor of London and as prime minister when it is released on October 10.