Honours ‘a bargain’
... claims Cameron’s ex-aide (who was handed a knighthood himself back in June)
A TORY MP handed a knighthood by David Cameron claimed last night that the honours system means the taxpayer is ‘getting a bargain’.
Sir Desmond Swayne rushed to defend the former prime minister’s actions just two months after himself being rewarded in the previous list.
He insisted that the system was a ‘light way’ for Mr Cameron to pay off his political ‘debt of honour’.
But critics last night accused the former aide of letting the cat out of the bag after he admitted the promise of honours had been used to ‘cajole’ people during Mr Cameron’s time in office.
Sir Desmond said that patronage had been a necessary tool during the years of coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
‘I think the reason we have an honours list is because over a period of government, particularly a difficult government in a coalition, a prime minister has to cajole and get the support of a number of people,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour. ‘He builds up a debt of honour and I think that, frankly, an honours list is a relatively light way of paying it off.
‘I think we get far too excited about these things. The reality is with any honours list there are names that will warm our hearts and names that will send us into an apoplectic rage.’
Sir Desmond said the list contained people who ‘ helped in particular ways and deserve a little bit more of a “thank you” than their salary’.
He added that it was legitimate to reward Downing Street press officers as they ‘ are essential and do a great job’.
In a separate interview, Sir Desmond told Sky News that the ‘reality is that those people who worked in No10 for the prime minister over the last six years have worked under enormous pressure 24/7’.
‘I think it is perfectly proper that over that time the prime minister will want to have rewarded those people with proper public recognition,’ he continued.
‘He would have expected to have had another four years to do that, but it is the nature of our politics that when the prime minister is out on his ear so are all the people who provided those services for him and for the nation.’
He told BBC News last night: ‘Actually when you think about it, providing these honours, actually the taxpayer is getting a bargain.’
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson yesterday said the honours system should be used only to reward those who had given ‘unprecedented public service’.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: ‘I would abolish resignation honours and I think the significance of this list, the reason it’s causing so much difficulty, is that Desmond Swayne, a former minister, has let the cat out of the bag today. He said this is a way for David Cameron to pay his political debts to his allies.
‘Look, the honours system isn’t supposed to be like that, is it? It’s supposed to reward unprecedented public service.’
Sir Desmond’s knighthood was announced in the Queen’s birthday honours in June.
He served as Mr Cameron’s parliamentary private secretary when he was leader of the opposition and during his first two years in government, before being promoted to junior minister.
In 2006, he faced embarrassment when a series of emails from him to Mr Cameron were leaked to a Sunday newspaper.
In the messages he called one colleague a ‘mince head’, another ‘Mr Angry’, a group of backbenchers ‘boring’ and a forum of grassroots members ‘stooges’.
He also advised that Theresa May, who was then shadow Commons leader, was ‘neither liked nor trusted across the party’.