What Tories make of Truss’s resignation honours

Liz Truss’s resignation honours list has finally been published. After much speculation – and some outrage she was even doing one in the first place – Downing Street has opted to put out the former prime minister’s resignation list to match with the annual New Year Honours list. The intention is pretty obvious: No. 10 hopes that the other list means there is less of a focus on Truss’s.

When it comes to who Liz Truss has chosen to honour, the list is fairly slim – and much shorter than Boris Johnson’s. Of course, this is in part because Truss was in power for a much shorter period of time than Johnson. Her 49-day premiership is why her list has been viewed as particularly contentious even before its publication.

In the end, the former prime minister has opted to honour longstanding allies, rather than focus on the key players from her brief time in 10 Downing Street. This includes her close Commons ally Jackie Doyle Price, who has received a damehood, and her longstanding former aide Sophie Jarvis who receives a CBE. Suzanne Webb, the Tory MP, has received an OBE for her time as Truss’s Parliamentary Private Secretary when she was Secretary of State for International Trade while her parliamentary colleague Robert Butler has received one for fulfilling the same role when Truss was Foreign Secretary.

As for peerages, notably former Institute for Economic Affairs head Mark Littlewood is missing from the list – despite widespread reports that he was put forward by Truss. It means there are just three peerages on Truss’s list which go to Tory donor and former chair of Vote Leave Jon Moynihan, former Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott and her long standing aide Ruth Porter, who served as deputy chief of staff for Truss in No. 10. In a statement to accompany the publication of the list, Truss said: ‘I am delighted these champions for the conservative causes of freedom, limited government and a proud and sovereign Britain have been suitably honoured.’

The opposition will no doubt make hay of the fact Truss even put forward a list despite the short length of her premiership and the manner in which it came to an end. Labour aides are keen to take any opportunity they have to link Sunak with the former prime minister. But when it comes to weaponising the honours system, Keir Starmer already has plenty to point to from previous lists of other former prime ministers, as well as the current scandal involving Michelle Mone.

So, will there be a political fallout from this list? First, it is worth pointing out that despite all the criticism, there is support in the Tory party for some of these names – particularly those who worked on the Vote Leave campaign. But it’s also the case that a majority of Tory MPs would have preferred Truss not to have a resignation honours list – including some of her former staff. A former Truss aide (who hasn’t made the list) messages dryly: ‘It really makes you grateful for democracy. It’s great that such high calibre people make laws’. A Tory MP jokes: ‘I thought Christmas had been and gone, I was wrong.’

But some are drawing optimism from the brevity of the list. As one minister puts it: ‘The list isn’t as bad as I feared but it is another reminder of the ghosts of Tories past’. The general hope is that this will be the last resignation honours list coming from a Tory prime minister for some time.