Liz Truss has reportedly nominated 14 people for peerages and awards in her controversial resignation honours list - equating to one for every four days she was prime minister.
Ms Truss last year became the UK’s shortest-ever serving premier when she left office after just 49 days, stepping aside to allow Rishi Sunak to take over.
Her seven chaotic weeks in No 10 included a disastrous mini-Budget, which included wide-ranging policy changes she was eventually forced to backtrack on.
The former prime minister has now reportedly listed 14 people for honours - including life peerages and a range of other awards including knighthoods, damehoods, CBEs, OBEs and MBEs - using resignation honours privileges outgoing No 10 incumbents are granted.
This equates to two nominations for each of the seven weeks she held office.
Ms Truss has nominated four of her close supporters for life peerages, and 12 other people for separate honours, according to The Times.
Two others are understood to have declined nominations, according to the newspaper.
One felt it would be “humiliating” to receive an honour from such a short-serving prime minister, while another said they did not feel deserving, the Times reports.
The four people Ms Truss has recommended for peerages are Conservative Party donor Jon Moynihan, former Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott, long-term aide Ruth Porter and think tank boss Mark Littlewood, according to previous reports.
Mr Littlewood is director of the free market-supporting think tank Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). The group backed the disastrous mini-Budget unveiled by Ms Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, with Mr Littlewood, according to The Guardian, calling it a “boost-up budget”.
The news Ms Truss has reportedly put forward 14 nominations has been met with outrage on Twitter, where users described it as a “total farce” and “laughable”.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have previously called for Ms Truss to be blocked from making an honours list, given the chaos the economy experienced under her leadership, and the shortness of her tenure.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner called it a “list of shame”, coming after she said Ms Truss “and her Conservative co-conspirators” had taken a “wrecking ball to the economy”.
The resignation honours process has come under fresh scrutiny recently, after former prime minister Boris Johnson was given the opportunity to put forward an honours roll.
Mr Johnson stepped down as prime minister after a Commons Privileges Committee found he had misled MPs when he offered assurances that Covid rules were followed in Downing Street despite boozy lockdown parties taking place during the pandemic.
But a host of his aides and allies were handed peerages and other gongs thanks to his resignation honours nominations.
Describing the process as a “farce”, former Tory Party chairman Baron Fowler of Sutton Coldfield called for it to be reformed, saying: “I think it just brings into question the whole business of prime ministers’ honours.”
No 10 has been approached by the Standard for comment.
