“When the curtain falls it is time to get off the stage, and that is what I propose to do,” said a dignified John Major on 2 May 1997, the morning after the former UK prime minister had suffered a huge election defeat. For a time he was as good as his word, heading straight to the Oval cricket ground in London to watch his favourite sport.

Four years later, having stood down as an MP, Sir John took up an offer to become the European chairman of the Carlyle Group, the large US private equity house.