Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel receive a knighthood and damehood in Boris Johnson honours list
Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list has just been published. He has awarded seven peerages. Among the names are former Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, current Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and former special adviser to Johnson Charlotte Owen. Nadine Dorries is not on the list.
Also on the list are former cabinet ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel who will receive a knighthood and a damehood respectively.
Key events
Health minister Will Quince has announced he will step down at the next election so he can “put my family and daughters first”.
Mr Quince said he had informed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who he supported during last summer’s Conservative leadership contest, and his local Tory association of his decision not to put himself forward to contest the election, expected to take place next year.
In a statement on his website, he said he was “incredibly proud” of what he had achieved in Parliament but that he felt he had been “neglecting” his role as a father.
The Colchester MP joins a long list of parliamentarians to announce they will bring a close to their Commons careers at the next national poll, with almost 50 declaring that this term will be their last.
Boris Johnson rewards aides implicated in Partygate
A number of aides who were implicated in the Partygate scandal have been honoured in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
These include Martin Reynolds, the principal private secretary under Johnson, who ITV News revealed last February had invited dozens of Downing Street staff to “socially distanced drinks” in the No 10 garden in May 2020, saying: “Bring your own booze!”
Shelley Williams-Walker, who was Downing Street’s head of operations under Johnson and went on to run his office was dubbed “DJ SWW” at a No 10 party held the night before Prince Philip’s funeral.
Jack Doyle, was the Downing Street director of communications from April 2021 to February 2022. He was in charge of the Downing Street response when the Mirror first contacted No 10 with allegations about a party in the prime minister’s flat, known as the “Abba party”. He told another official at the time: “I don’t know what we say about the flat … Ignore the Xmas quiz bullshit, who cares. Just be robust and they’ll get bored.”
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has called the honours list “sickening”:
“Instead of tackling the cost-of-living crisis, the Tories are spending their time doling out rewards for those who tried to cover up rule-breaking and toadied to a disgraced former prime minister.
“It’s a sickening insult that those who planned Covid parties and held boozy lockdown bashes while families were unable to mourn loved ones are now set to be handed gongs by Rishi Sunak.
“As Boris Johnson faces yet more allegations and investigations about his conduct, the privilege of an honours list is spectacularly ill-judged and wholly undeserved.”
The Times reported last November that four sitting Conservative MPs, Nadine Dorries, Alok Sharma, Alister Jack and Nigel Adams were all offered peerages by Johnson. None of them are on the former prime minister’s resignation honours list.
Pippa Crerar, our political editor, says the House of Lords Appointments Commission insisted on them having byelections first.
Four sitting MPs – Nadine Dorries, Alok Sharma, Alister Jack, Nigel Adams – all offered peerages by Johnson.
HOLAC insisted on by-elections first, so Jack & Adams decided to wait, with benefit of avoiding polls.
Dorries decided to quit anyway (Sharma tbc).
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) June 9, 2023
Rishi Sunak had ‘no involvement or input’ into Johnson’s honours list, says press secretary
Rishi Sunak’s press secretary says he had “no involvement or input” into Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
The prime minister’s press secretary said: “As is convention, the prime minister forwarded the former prime minister’s peerage list to House of Lords Appointments Commission unaltered.
“Holac then passed back their approved list. The prime minister then accepted Holac’s approved list and forwarded it unamended to the sovereign for their approval. He had no involvement or input into the approved list.
“It is a point of fact that it is made public by the commission if a prime minister overrules the commission’s advice.”
Andrea Jenkyns, the Conservative MP for Morley and Outwood who served as parliamentary undersecretary of state for skills between July and October 2022, has reacted to her newly awarded damehood on Twitter.
She made headlines shortly after being appointed parliamentary undersecretary for putting her middle finger up at protesters.
I am deeply honoured to have been awarded a Damehood (DBE) for public and political services, having been nominated by our Nation’s greatest Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher, the Rt Hon. @BorisJohnson, it was an honour to serve in his Government as a Minister & a Whip 🇬🇧
— Andrea Jenkyns MP 🇬🇧 (@andreajenkyns) June 9, 2023
Boris Johnson rewards aides implicated in Partygate scandal
Pippa Crerar, our political editor, notes some of those on the list were implicated in the Partygate scandal.
Among those honoured are Jack Doyle, who served as Downing Street director of communications from April 2021 to February 2022, and Rosie Bate-Williams, the former prime minister’s press secretary.
BREAKING: Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list finally published.
Includes host of former Tory aides, some implicated in Partygate scandal.
Several former City Hall advisors. And friends of his wife Carrie.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) June 9, 2023
Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel receive a knighthood and damehood in Boris Johnson honours list
Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list has just been published. He has awarded seven peerages. Among the names are former Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, current Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and former special adviser to Johnson Charlotte Owen. Nadine Dorries is not on the list.
Also on the list are former cabinet ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel who will receive a knighthood and a damehood respectively.
Earlier today, just hours before resigning and prompting a byelection, Dorries said “the last thing I would want to do would be to cause a byelection in my constituency”.
Brutal efficiency of Tory WhatsApp group on display:
She said she “loves” Boris and Carrie Johnson “to bits” but is not tempted to tour the world with the former prime minister, as suggested by Talk TV presenter Vanessa Feltz.
Nadine Dorries claims there are people in the House of Lords without her ‘record of achievement’ but that they did go to Oxbridge
Nadine Dorries said there are people sitting in the House of Lords who do not have her “record of achievement” but that “they did go to Oxford or Cambridge”.
She told Talk TV: “There are many people sitting in the house of lords who do not have the record of achievement that I have but they did go to Oxford or Cambridge and they do move in slightly different circles to me.”
She says she was born on the “poorest street in Britain” and that it would have been “unusual for someone from my background” to be ennobled in the House of Lords.
One of the reasons she hung on was because it would have been “amazing” for somebody from her background to be a peer, she said.
She has had “a number of conversations over the last 24 hours” with Boris Johnson but that she has already started leaving Tory WhatsApp groups.
Nadine Dorries says ‘something significant’ prompted her to stand down
Speaking minutes after announcing her resignation, Nadine Dorries has said that “something significant” prompted her to change her mind about sparking a byelection but will not reveal what that was.
The MP for Mid Bedfordshire told Talk TV, where she also has a show, that she had changed her mind on the issue this morning but that: “I can’t reveal everything”.
Admitting that “the House of Lords thing was on the cards” she said that in the course of the day “something significant did happen to change my mind”.
She added: “I didn’t want to cause a byelection but I got over myself frankly and it’s time to do the right thing.”
She said later in the interview that she was “relieved” and that she is not happy with the way her party has conducted itself over the last year.
She said she will continue presenting her TV show and writing her Daily Mail column without the “guilt” she had been bearing.
Here’s the full story on Nadine Dorries’ resignation, from Aubrey Allegretti:
In the 2019 general election, Nadine Dorries won 60% of the vote in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency. The Labour candidate, who came in second, was well behind on 22% and the Liberal Democrats won 13% of the vote. The Greens were on 4%.
Dorries increased her majority from 20,983 in 2017 to 24,664 in 2019, with a swing of 2.4% from Labour to the Conservatives.
Dorries’ resignation comes after the Times reported overnight that the staunch Johnson ally had been removed from Johnson’s honours list – along with Alok Sharma – to avoid potential byelections.
But now, no matter what the contents of the former prime minister’s soon to be published list, a byelection in Mid Bedfordshire is a certainty.
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