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The Prime Minister last week raised eyebrows when he set out his hopes for securing a “significant return to normality” in time for Christmas.

This upbeat assessment of Britain’s chances of moving on from the pandemic contrasted with the pessimism of a top scientist.

Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), claimed a return to pre-lockdown normality is “a long way off”.

But Mr Shapps insisted it is “possible that we can get there”.

He said: “It’s giving people a road map, really, so we can give people some hope whilst planning for the worst as well. We want to give people some sense of direction, because a lot of people are running businesses or rely on the Christmas period and need to know that if everything goes well that this is our intention.

“But you can’t get away from the fact that the virus is still, in many ways, a bit of an unknown, and of course it depends how millions of people respond and how good and alert we are in terms of all the things we know, like washing your hands and for the time being keeping that social distance of one metre-plus.”

Mr Johnson stoked hopes that more lockdown measures can be ditched in last week’s Downing St briefing in which he announced relaxed work-from-home guidance and paved the way for theatres and sports stadiums to reopen.

He described it as his “strong and sincere hope” that ministers would be able to review the remaining restrictions from November onwards, “possibly in time for Christmas”.

Mr Shapps also became the first senior politician to declare he is taking a summer holiday abroad this year.

He told Radio 4  he and his wife Belinda had decided to take advantage of the relaxation of Foreign Office guidance on non-essential overseas travel.

“My wife looked at all of these new changes that were made and has now booked a break for the first time for a couple of years,” he said.

This contrasts with the pledges of senior MPs including the PM and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer that they would take a “staycation”.

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