Boris Johnson back Leave in the Brexit referendum (Image: GETTY)
Mr Carney would, Mr Ahmed suggested, be aware that the Remain camp would "grab all his negative comments about Brexit and trumpet them as a victory".
Meanwhile he knew Leavers would attack him for "being deliberately partisan in his approach to the value or otherwise of the EU to the British economy".
After a trade deal was secured by Mr Johnson and his counterpart, Ursula von der Leyen - the European Commission's President, the Prime Minister did confess the pact had failed to live up to his ambition for the finance sector.