Another day, another episode in the ongoing Johnson-Sunak psychodrama. Following clashes over the Stormont brake and the Covid inquiry, Rishi Sunak is now prepared to wave through his predecessor’s honours list – nine months after his resignation. The ongoing delay in the publication of the list has been a source of tension between the pair. But the Times reports today that Sunak has accepted the precedent that outgoing prime ministers should be entitled to make appointments. The list is expected to be published and approved before the summer parliamentary recess.
The names on Johnson’s list have been subject to endless gossip in Westminster, with the number of appointees slashed from almost 100 to around 50: in line with the numbers submitted by Theresa May and David Cameron. Michael Gove – who is tipped for a knighthood – is one of those expected to miss out in the cull. Four MPs, though, are expected to be in line for peerages: Nigel Adams, Alister Jack, Nadine Dorries and Alok Sharma. There has been some controversy over whether sitting MPs could ‘defer’ their peerages until after the next election rather than taking them up immediately.
Adams and Jack are expected to wait until the end of this parliament to collect them but Dorries and Sharma will stand down to take their seats in the upper house in the coming weeks. This will trigger by-elections in their respective constituencies of Mid-Bedfordshire and Reading West. The former is a safe Tory seat with a 24,664 majority while the latter is a marginal with a majority of 4,117. Labour’s 16-point poll lead and the experience of the Tiverton and North Shropshire by-elections suggest that the Tories could lose both seats. This, coupled with worse-than-expected losses for the Conservatives in last month’s local elections, will be a worry for the party.
Sunak will not welcome this prospect. He nevertheless is keen to draw a line under the saga and will hope this ends the acrimony between the former prime minister and him. After Johnson’s nominees are published, it will be Liz Truss’s turn. That is expected to be a much shorter list of honours – in recognition of her brief tenure in Downing Street. Some might wonder whether Sunak ought not to block his predecessors’ lists. But he will be all too aware that if he overturns this precedent then there will be nothing to stop Keir Starmer doing the same thing if and when he succeeds Sunak in No. 10.
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