Rishi Sunak is facing accusations of cronyism after at least seven Conservative donors were given honours in the new year list of awards, including knighthoods for the taxi firm founder John Griffin and the Wetherspoon’s boss Tim Martin.
Griffin, the founder of Addison Lee, has given £3m to the Conservatives and is knighted for services to industry and charity. Martin, who donated £400,000 to the Vote Leave campaign and £50,000 to the Tories in the 2019 election, is knighted for services to hospitality and culture. More recently, Martin has given £25,000 to Nigel Farage’s Reform party.
Other donors to get awards include Ron Dennis, the former McClaren boss, who has given £300,000 to the Tories and is knighted for services to industry and charity, and William Salomon, a financier who has donated £800,000 and gets an OBE for his education charity work.
Sunak had promised to bring ethics and integrity back to politics after the Boris Johnson era, and his political opponents questioned why honours had been given to party donors.
Griffin, who has also given £12m to a medical research institute, told the Guardian that he had never sought an honour for his political contribution and that politics was “not really my bag”.
He last donated in 2019 and said he would not be giving any more money before the next election despite being “pleased to be a Conservative”. He said: “I feel now that I’ve done what I’ve done. I may make the odd contribution but nothing really exceptional. They’ve got to fight it out between them.”
On his honour, he added: “I started a company and I was a minicab driver myself and I thought I could do a better job. I had a good training regime and no driver was found guilty of any serious offence during my stewardship. I was proud of that and I felt that overall I deserve some recognition if anybody did.”
Other political figures to get honours include Sajid Javid, the former chancellor and home secretary, who gets a knighthood, and the Labour former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett, who is made a dame grand cross, the highest honour. Siobhan McDonagh, a Labour MP, is made a dame.
Sunak said the honours had been given to “recognise the exceptional achievements of people across the country and those who have shown the highest commitment to selflessness and compassion”. He added: “To all honourees, you are the pride of this country and an inspiration to us all.”
The Liberal Democrats questioned the decision to honour some Tory donors, who the government said had received awards for their business and charity work.
Wendy Chamberlain, the Lib Dem chief whip, said: “It’s shocking, given the years of chaos, just how many Tory donors are being rewarded. It makes a mockery of the honours system that aims to celebrate people’s achievements and shows just how out of touch the government is as families across the country continue to struggle to pay their bills.”
Tom Brake, the director of the campaign organisation Unlock Democracy, said: “The evidence is that making a massive political donation significantly boosts a donor’s chance of a knighthood or OBE. The honours system is long overdue for radical surgery. Time to take the power of patronage away from politicians and give it to the people.”
A Conservative spokesperson said: “Volunteering and supporting a political party is part of our civic democracy. It is wrong to criticise individuals being honoured just because they have also chosen to support or donate to a political party. Donations should be transparent, but that is not an excuse to knock people for broader philanthropy, enterprise and public service.”
Dennis and Salomon were approached for comment.
A spokesperson for Martin said: “Charges of cronyism are clearly at odds with reality. Tim made regular donations to Labour Leave, a Labour party pro-Brexit organisation. He has also made donations to Vote Leave and the Brexit party.
“The party of government, during the time most of the donations were made, was run by pro-remain politicians like David Cameron and George Osborne.
“Tim, as the record shows, has also been a consistent and vociferous critic of this and previous governments’ policies towards pubs. In summary, Tim has mostly supported widely recognised anti-government organisations over the years, rather than the government.”
