A KNIGHTHOOD for his own father and a gong for a Putin-linked Tory donor could be on the honours list put forward by Boris Johnson as a customary part of his resignation as prime minister.
The outgoing Tory leader is expected to appoint allies to the Lords as part of his resignation honours list – after he handed the editor of a book called “The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson” a role on the upper house's Appointments Commission.
No details have been confirmed so far, but some names rumoured to be handed life peerages include now former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and the former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre.
Johnson has travelled to the Queen's private residence of Balmoral to hand in his resignation, with the monarch set to officially appoint Liz Truss (below) as his successor soon after.
It is unclear when Johnson's honours list will be released, with Downing Street saying there is “no fixed time” for the announcement.
His spokesperson said on Monday: “It will be a matter for the new Government essentially on the timings, but there’s no fixed time for them at the moment.”
Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May’s resignation honours list came about two months after she resigned as prime minister.
It is tradition for departing prime ministers to create new life peerages, but as these are often handed to political staff and former advisers, they are rarely without controversy.
May’s substantial awards for ex-political aides and Tory donors faced criticism, with Johnson’s list essentially guaranteed to prove controversial.
It has been reported that it could include gongs for Lubov Chernukhin, a Russian donor married to a former minister under Vladimir Putin who has spent hundreds of thousands to play tennis with Johnson, and the Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross, who arranged a luxury holiday for Johnson and his then-fiancee Carrie Symonds in Mustique in 2019.
One of Johnson’s most vocal supporters, Dorries is expected to be granted a peerage after she announced she is standing down as culture secretary following his departure from No 10.
There is also speculation that Johnson could give his father, Stanley Johnson, a knighthood.
Some of the 86 peers Johnson has already appointed in his three-year term have been contentious, fuelling accusations of cronyism.
These include wealthy Tory donor Peter Cruddas, who faced cash-for-access allegations as party co-treasurer; newspaper owner Evgeny Lebedev (above), the Russian-born son of a former KGB agent; Zac Goldsmith, whose peerage meant he could retain his role as environment minister after he was ousted as an MP; and his brother Jo Johnson.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown said he had seen plans to appoint up to 50 new Tory peers to force Brexit-linked legislation through the Lords.
Under the proposals, drawn up by Sir Lynton Crosby’s CT Group, each peer would have to agree to “sign away” their rights to make a judgment on draft laws, Brown said.
He wrote in The Guardian in July: “The document proposes that Johnson ride roughshod over every convention and standard of propriety in an effort to secure political nominees who will vote for the Tory Government.”
Johnson’s appointments so far have taken the number of members sitting in the Lords to more than 800 – compared with 650 MPs in the House of Commons.
Further partisan appointments by the Tories threaten to see the unelected upper chamber balloon even further to more than 900 members, Lord Burns, who leads the committee that devised a course to reduce the size of the Lords, warned in July.
Days before leaving office, Johnson came under fire for appointing a “leading crony” to help oversee the appointment of new peers to the Lords, including vetting his resignation honours requests.
Writer and journalist Harry Mount, the author of The Wit And Wisdom Of Boris Johnson, will take up the role on the House of Lords Appointments Commission from September 11.
