LIZ Truss’s long-awaited resignation honours list has been branded an “insult to people in Scotland” by the SNP while Labour described it as a “slap in the face to working people”.
The Electoral Reform Society has called for urgent reform to the “rotten and out of control” peerage system and criticised the list which proposes a new peer for every day-and-a-half Truss was in office.
The list which includes Tory donors and special advisers was fraught with controversy before being published, with calls for Rishi Sunak to block the handout of honours given the short-lived nature of Truss’s premiership.
The former prime minister resigned last October after the fallout from her disastrous mini-budget, becoming the country’s shortest-serving prime minister after just 49 days in office.
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard said people are “still reeling” from decisions made during her tenure.
He said: “Despite spending only 49 days in office and crashing the economy, Westminster has shamefully allowed Liz Truss to hand out peerages to her friends and supporters.
“Those who helped her tank the pound, put pensions at risk and push up mortgage costs have been rewarded with a place in the House of Lords, cashing in £300 a day for life.”
The SNP MP (below) went on to call Westminster, the House of Lords and the honours system “broken”.
He added: “And neither Labour or the Tories have any desire to change it.
“Scotland deserves better than this and only the SNP recognise that. Only SNP MPs can be trusted to stand up for Scotland at Westminster - and for democracy.”
Tory donor Jon Moynihan, Truss’s deputy chief of staff in Number 10 Ruth Porter and former chief executive of the Vote Leave Brexit campaign Matthew Elliott have all been recommended for peerages by Truss.
Moynihan donated £20,000 to Ms Truss’s leadership campaign in 2022.
Meanwhile, novelist Shirley Ida Conran, who is also on the list, donated £5,000 to Truss to support activity in her constituency, according to the public register of interest.
Conran will become a dame for her services to mathematics education as founder of the Maths Anxiety Trust. The honour will see Conran, who was previously made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), receive the same honour as Jilly Cooper received in the New Year Honours list.
The list, which had been long-delayed, was published by the Government at the same time as a slew of separate New Year Honours.
It also comes in the middle of the Commons Christmas recess with MPs away from Westminster, with Number 10 likely hoping to minimise any fallout from the publication of the honours.
Labour’s shadow cabinet office minister Jonathan Ashworth MP said: “This list is proof positive of Rishi Sunak’s weakness and a slap in the face to working people who are paying the price of the Tories crashing the economy.
“Honours should be for those committed to public service, not rewards for Tory failure. Rather than apologise for crashing the economy and driving up mortgages rates, costing families thousands, Rishi Sunak has nodded through these tarnished gongs because he is too weak to lead a Tory Party completely out of touch with working people.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Truss’s list “calls the whole honours system into disrepute”.
Cooper said: “This shameless move to reward Liz Truss’s car crash cronies is matched only by Sunak’s weakness in failing to block it.
“Truss handing out gongs after blowing a hole in the public finances and leaving families reeling from spiralling mortgage costs calls this whole honours system into disrepute.
“The honours system should celebrate hardworking people who have achieved great things; sullying this celebration shows just how out of touch this Conservative Government really is.”
Willie Sullivan, senior director for campaigns at the Electoral Reform Society, said: “It will feel like an insult to many to see Liz Truss handing out peerages to friends and supporters after her disastrously short stint as prime minister. It looks like the political class dishing out rewards for failure at a time when many people are still suffering the effects from her turbulent premiership.
“Liz Truss’s resignation honours list also adds yet more peers to the House of Lords, which already has around 800 members making it the second largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress.
“This all highlights just how rotten and out of control the current peerages system is, and why it needs urgent reform to prevent it causing any more damage to the public’s trust in politics. It is clear this is not a fit nor proper way to choose who sits in our Parliament.
“This is why we need to replace the bloated and unelected Lords with a smaller elected chamber where the people of this country, not former prime ministers, choose who sits in Parliament making the laws we all live under.”
Since leaving office, Truss has continued to defend and build on her brand of conservatism, making a bid to find a solution to stagnant growth in the UK and elsewhere.
Following the publication of her resignation honours list, Truss said: “I am delighted these champions for the Conservative causes of freedom, limited government and a proud and sovereign Britain have been suitably honoured.”
