Botham and Brexiteers get nod for Lords ( after hitting EU for six! )
BORIS Johnson’s brother and cricket legend Sir Ian Botham are set to become members of the House of Lords, it was confirmed yesterday.
The Prime Minister nominated brother Jo, 48, who quit as a Conservative MP and minister last year saying he was “torn between family and national interest”.
Former England captain Botham, 64, is one of a number of Brexiteers nominated for peerages along with several Tory grandees.
Theresa May’s husband Philip, 62, is set for a knighthood after being named in the Government’s dissolution honours list which one critic last night described as “the worst kind of cronyism”.
Russian-born billionaire newspaper proprietor Evgeny Lebedev, the son of a former KGB operative, is also among the 36 life peerage nominations.
The list also includes former MPs who rebelled against the Labour position to back Brexit, including Kate Hoey, Ian Austin and Gisela Stuart.
Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox has also been nominated.
But Mr Johnson did pick
Conservative former chancellors Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond for peerages, after he stripped them from the Tory whip when they defied him over leaving the EU.
Mr Hammond – who stood down as an MP before last December’s election – wrote on Twitter: “Honoured to join the House of Lords and delighted to be rejoining the Conservative parliamentary party.
“I look forward to making a contribution to the important public debates we will have in this country over the coming years as we seek to address the great challenges of our age.”
The Prime
Minister also nominated his chief strategic adviser and long-term ally Sir Edward Lister.
Former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson is also heading for a seat in the Lords along with Tory donor and City grandee Michael Spencer and Charles Moore, who was Mr Johnson’s boss when he edited a newspaper and is a biographer of Margaret Thatcher.
Ray Puddifoot – the Tory leader of Hillingdon Council, which comes within the Prime Minister’s constituency – has been nominated for a knighthood.
Lord Fowler, a former Conservative cabinet minister, said the House will “soon be nearly 830 strong”, accusing Mr Johnson of “the abandonment of an established policy” to reduce its membership.
He said: “It is also a vast pity that the list has been announced within the first few days of the summer recess when neither House is sitting, and the Government cannot be challenged in Parliament.”
The Liberal Democrats’ leader in the Lords, Lord Newby, said: “By giving a large number of his cronies peerages, he has shown that the Tories have abandoned any pretence of reducing the size of the bloated House of Lords.”
Darren Hughes, the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: “By appointing a host of ex-MPs, party loyalists and his own brother, the PM is inviting total derision. “That he can get away with it shows what a private members’ club this House is.”