Rishi Sunak has said his father would be lucky to get a card on Father’s Day, let alone a knighthood, after accusations that Boris Johnson’s honours list had discredited the system.
Sunak has come under pressure to reject Johnson’s list, in which he nominated his father, Stanley Johnson, for a knighthood, given previous allegations about his behaviour.
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes in 2022 accused Stanley Johnson of smacking her on the backside during a Conservative party conference in 2003 and the journalist Ailbhe Rea said he groped her at a different conference event. He has denied those accusations.
En route to the first UK-France summit in five years, Sunak refused to explicitly condemn Johnson’s list, but ruled out doing the same thing.
“For me, a big success is remembering to get my dad a card on Father’s Day, so that is probably about my limit of it,” Sunak told reporters.
When asked if he believed former prime ministers should be able to nominate their family members for honours, and whether his comments suggested he was against the idea, Sunak told reporters: “Yes. As I said, if I am doing a card, I’m doing well, love my dad as I do. There is always comment and speculation about honours lists beforehand. I’m not going to comment on speculation. I don’t see these things until I see them, so it is hard for me to say any more than that.”
On Thursday, the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, told BBC’s Question Time that prime ministers should “absolutely not” hand honours to family members in response to reports about Boris Johnson’s plans.
Meanwhile Sunak continues to avoid saying exactly when he would publish his tax returns. In January, the prime minister said he would publish his returns “fairly shortly”.
When asked during his trip to France on Friday what was taking him so long, he responded: “As you know, the tax year ended on Jan 31st, so I’ve been a bit busy over the last few weeks … so that’s the only reason why [I haven’t published them]. But they will be published fairly shortly.”
