‘Rewards For Failure’: Fury Erupts After Rishi Sunak Hands Gongs To Top Tories

Rishi Sunak has been accused of giving “rewards for failure” after he handed out gongs to senior Tories in his resignation honours list.

Michael Gove, Mark Harper and Alister Jack are among the former cabinet ministers given seats for life in the House of Lords by the former prime minister.

He also awarded knighthoods to James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt, Grant Shapps, Mel Stride and Andrew Mitchell.

In all, Sunak – who led the Conservatives to a landslide general election defeat last year – gave honours to 11 current and former Tory MPs, 18 former Tory advisers, two Tory councillors and the party’s former chief executive.

He also awarded a knighthood to former England cricketer James Anderson and the filmmaker Matthew Vaughn.

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “These political nominations look like an ID parade of political flunkies whose fingerprint of failure are still felt on family finances.

“They are rewards for the failure of a dreadful Conservative government that was rightly kicked out of office.

“Millions of hard working families were fed up after years of Conservative chaos culminating in a cost of living crisis, and public services on their knees. 

“The fact that Rishi Sunak has dished out honours to his mates after all the damage they did is yet more proof of how out of touch the Conservatives still are.”

Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: “Trust in our politics has slumped to record lows in recent years. Yet today the public is again witnessing the spectacle of a former prime minster stuffing even more friends and allies into the already ludicrously bloated House of Lords – handing each one a job for life in parliament.

“This business-as-usual ‘jobs for mates’ approach at Westminster will do nothing to arrest that alarming collapse in public trust.”

The reaction was no more positive on social media.