Boris Johnson has appointed a “quivering fanboy” and friend to the body responsible for approving peerages.
Number 10 announced Harry Mount, a former Bullingdon Club member and second cousin of David Cameron, would be installed as Independent Member of the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC).
The body, which vets peerage nominations, is reportedly holding up Mr Johnson’s plans to install big-ticket donors and sitting Tory MPs into the House of Lords.
Mr Mount edited a book on “the Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson ” in 2013, which the Guardian described as the work of a “quivering fanboy”.
He is now editor of the Oldie magazine, and frequently writes for the Times and Telegraph.
Mr Mount is set to take up the post on 11 September, six days after Mr Johnson is expected to be replaced by Liz Truss.
Prime Ministerial resignation honours are usually published in the months following their stepping down from office.
Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, Culture secretary Nadine Dorries and Sir Nicholas Soames - the former Tory MP and grandson of Winston Churchill - are understood to have been placed on the list.
Conservative chairman Ben Elliot - whose firm has been accused of selling access to Prince Charles and boasting of links to “Russian elites” - is being lined up for a gong.
And more big ticket donors are being discussed - many of them thought to be members of Mr Johnson’s “advisory committee” of donors said to be granted access to senior ministers in return for giving more than £250,000 to the party.
In one incident during Mr Mount’s membership of the Bullingdon Club, Oxford’s notoriously rowdy drinking club for wealthy youngsters, he was rolled down a hill in a portal.
“It was like coming out of Dracula’s coffin,” he told the New Yorker in 2007.
He later described the club as “gut-shrivellingly embarrassing”.
Lord True, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office welcomed the new Member appointment, saying: “I would like to congratulate Harry Mount on his appointment as an Independent Member to the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
“Harry Mount brings a wealth of experience from his career, and has much to offer House of Lords Appointments Commission and I wish him the best in his role.”
