Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list rewards allies with peerages and knighthoods

Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list has been released, with some of his closest allies, including Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg, receiving peerages and other awards. The list was published just hours before Johnson stepped down as an MP. Simon Clarke and Rees-Mogg were both knighted, while Patel was made a dame. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and London Assembly member Shaun Bailey are among the seven new peers.

No serving MPs were given peerages, thereby avoiding by-elections for the Conservatives. However, there will now be a by-election in Johnson’s constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Former Conservative minister Nadine Dorries was not included in the list for the House of Lords, despite speculation that she would be. Dorries, who served as culture secretary under Johnson, stood down as an MP just over an hour before the honours list was released.

The resignation honours list is a tradition that allows outgoing prime ministers to nominate individuals for honours. The list, approved nine months after Johnson resigned as prime minister, includes 38 honours and seven peerages. Among those who will enter the Lords are Kulveer Singh Ranger, a former director of transport during Johnson’s tenure as London mayor, and former Downing Street chief of staff Dan Rosenfield.

Charlotte Owen, a former adviser to Johnson, will become one of the youngest peers, along with fellow advisers Ben Gascoigne and Ross Kempsell. Honours were also awarded to some of Johnson’s closest advisers during his premiership, including former directors of communications Jack Doyle and Guto Harri, who were both made CBEs.

Recipients also include aides who served with Johnson during the lockdown parties scandal in Downing Street amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s former principal private secretary, was awarded the Order of Bath. In May 2020, Reynolds sent an invitation to a “bring your own booze” party to Downing Street staff while the nation was under lockdown.

Ben Elliot, the former co-chair of the Conservative Party, has been awarded a knighthood, as have Tory MPs Michael Fabricant and Conor Burns, who are loyal to Johnson. The first name on the list is Tory MP and long-standing Brexit supporter Bill Cash, who has become a companion of honour. Membership is a special award granted to those “who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government” and is held by up to 65 people at any one time.

Rishi Sunak has approved Johnson’s resignation honours list and “forwarded it unamended” to King Charles, according to the prime minister’s press secretary. Sunak had no involvement or input into the approved list. By convention, a former prime minister’s resignation list of new peers is forwarded to the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC), which vets appointments.

Alok Sharma, who was president of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, was another Tory MP who did not feature on the list, despite being widely tipped for a peerage. Typically, when sitting MPs are given peerages, they resign their seats, triggering by-elections.

Following the Partygate scandal and the political turbulence of Johnson’s premiership, the former PM’s honours list was expected to be controversial and provoke fierce criticism. Some reactions to the names published have met those expectations. A formerly loyal aide to Johnson called the honours list “an utter disgrace,” stating that it was “rewards for failure all round.” They added, “Boris has slammed the door shut on the prospect of any return to the frontline of British politics and trashed what remained of his legacy.”

Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said it was “shameful” that Sunak had “failed to stand up to his former boss’s outrageous demands and agreed to hand out prizes to this carousel of cronies.” Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper also criticised the list, stating, “Boris Johnson has been allowed to hand out gongs to his Partygate pals, and Rishi Sunak has just waved it through.”

The seven new peers on Johnson’s honours list will join a House of Lords that already has more than 800 members. The Electoral Reform Society campaign group said Johnson’s resignation list “demonstrates just how discredited and partisan the honours system has become.” Its chief executive, Darren Hughes, called for an end to the “rotten system of patronage” and the replacement of the unelected Lords with a smaller elected chamber.