by Liz Truss has awarded peerages and other awards to Brexiteers and those loyal to her personally in the long-awaited list of honors to leave.
It was reported that the former prime minister nominated 14 people – one for every three and a half days of his stay in Number 10 – but the appointment commissioners approved only 11 people.
Matthew Elliott, the former chief executive of Vote Leave, and Jon Moynihan, the organisation’s former chairman, receive life peers in the resignation honors list, which Ms Truss submitted in March.
His list, which is short compared to the 45 people Boris Johnson honored when he left Downing Street, includes peers Ruth Porter, who was Ms Truss’s deputy chief of staff during her 49-day tenure as chief executive .
But the House of Lords appointments commission appears to have blocked a peerage for Mark Littlewood, the outgoing head of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a think-tank that backed his impatient mini-budget last autumn. Mr Littlewood was reportedly nominated for a peerage but his name did not make the final list.
Ms Truss’s close friend, Jackie Doyle-Price, the MP for Thurrock who was Minister of State for Industry for six weeks during the Truss Prime Ministership, is a supporter, as is the novelist Shirley Conran, whom Ms Truss has known for founding the non-profit. -profit Math Concern Trust.
Alec Shelbrooke MP, another Truss loyalist who briefly served as junior defense minister under her, is knighted, her former special advisers Sophie Jarvis and Shabbir Merali are given CBEs and her former parliamentary private secretaries Robert Butler MP and Suzanne Webb MP OBE. Ms Truss was met by Conservative Association chairman David Hills, MBE, in her South West Norfolk constituency.
Miss Truss said she was “thrilled with these champions of conservative causes of liberty, limited government and a proud sovereign Britain were duly honoured”.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow cabinet minister, said Mr Truss’s resignation honors list was “proof positive of Rishi Sunak’s weakness” because “He stuck through these spoiled gongs” he said in return for Conservative failures.
A Government source replied: “Every former Labor prime minister has issued a Dissolution or Resignation List.
“The convention is that the current Prime Minister does not block other people’s political peerage proposals – be it from former prime ministers, or dubious nominations from Labor Party leaders Tom Watson and Shami Chakrabarti.”
Separately, Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, was knighted in the New Year Honours, which are awarded by the King on the recommendation of the current Prime Minister, Mr Sunak.
Sir Sajid’s resignation, followed by Mr Sunak’s quick resignation, marked the end of Mr Johnson’s Prime Ministership and finally paved the way for Mr Sunak to step into Number 10.
Sir Sajid, who is standing at the next general election, was knighted at the recommendation of Mr Sunak after holding six Cabinet roles including home secretary and chancellor and becoming the first British Asian to hold one of to hold the great offices of state.
The first female foreign secretary
Labor Dame Margaret Beckett, who is standing down at the next election after 40 years representing Derby South, when she was the first female foreign secretary, will become a Cross Dame after becoming Leader of the House in 2013.
Siobhain McDonagh, a Labor member who has been an MP since 1997, becomes a lady. Her sister Margaret McDonagh, who died earlier this year, was Labour’s first female general secretary.
Ms McDonagh said it was a “surprise” to be notified of the honor and she thought her late sister would be “proud of the work I have done over the past 26 years as MP for Mitcham and Morden… the place where we were born and raised we were raised”.
Makerfield MP Yvonne Fovargue, who sits on the privileges and standards committees, receives a CBE and her Labor colleague, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees, has been made an OBE.
Conservative backbencher Mark Garnier, who represents Wyre Forest, and Erewash MP Maggie Throup, who was vaccines minister between 2021 and 2022, have also been made OBEs.
