Labour calls on Rishi Sunak to block Boris Johnson’s ‘conveyer belt of cronies’ resignation peerages

Labour has called on Rishi Sunak to block Boris Johnson’s “conveyer belt of cronies” resignation peerages.

Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, former minister Nigel Adams and the outgoing COP26 President Alok Sharma are among those expected to be nominated by the former prime minister to be elevated to the House of Lords.

The Times newspaper also reports that Mr Johnson has nominated two of his loyal advisers – Ross Kempsell, the Conservative Party’s former political director and Charlotte Owen, a former assistant to the former PM – to become the youngest life peers in history.

A source close to Mr Johnson said: “We never comment on speculation about honours.”

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Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said the prime minister should “refuse to do Boris Johnson’s bidding” and reject his demands.

“This disgraced ex-prime minister’s plot to dodge democracy by trying to reward his MP lackeys with promised jobs for life in the House of Lords yet again puts the Tory Party’s interests before the public’s,” she said in a statement.

“These underhand attempts to game the system by installing a conveyor belt of cronies and skewing parliament in the Tories’ favour for decades to come should never see the light of day.

“Rishi Sunak should make it clear in no uncertain terms that he will refuse to do Boris Johnson’s bidding and reject his disreputable demands.”

Earlier today, a Conservative MP criticised those nominated by Mr Johnson for peerages.

“What a shameful list of bootlickers, bimbos and tropical island holiday facilitators who between them can be proud to have pushed trust in politics to an extreme low during their tenures and offered very little in return to the British people,” they told Sky News.

The politicians on the list are all understood to have agreed to delay heading to the Lords until the end of the current parliament to spare Mr Sunak the challenges of by-elections.

How the peerages for MPs would be delayed was unclear, but the suggestion was that the King would have to approve the arrangement, in a move appearing to be without precedent.

Shaun Bailey, the former London mayoral candidate who faced a backlash for attending a mid-lockdown Christmas party, was also said to be on the former prime minister’s list.

The prime minister’s resignation honours are distinctions granted by an outgoing prime minister.

A PM can request the reigning monarch to grant peerages, knighthoods, damehoods or other awards in the British honours system to any number of people.

In the case of peerages, the House of Lords Appointments Commission vets the list.

Often, but not always, Downing Street staff, political aides and MPs are rewarded through the system.