Backlash as Dave hands out farewell gongs to favourites
DAVID Cameron is to shower honours on No 10 aides and Tory donors with a knighthood awarded to his chief spin doctor.
The former Prime Minister has drawn up a resignation list of more than 15 people to whom he wants to give gongs, ranging from peerages down to OBEs.
The list is to be topped by his ex-director of communications, Craig Oliver.
The former editor of BBC news coverage, who took over at Downing Street after the departure of Andy Coulson in 2011, is likely to be knighted.
Others will be sent to the House of Lords, where they will be able to claim a £300-aday tax-free allowance and vote on laws for the rest of their lives.
The awards of so many gongs to Mr Cameron’s aides and cronies will provoke further pressure for the reform of the discredited honours system.
It is understood from sources in rival parties that the list has now been cleared by the civil service after a delay caused by Whitehall officials querying some names.
The resignation list is thought to include a ‘mixture of Ks and Ps down to OBEs’ – meaning knighthoods, peerages and lesser honours. Last week it emerged that Mr Cameron had overruled civil service advice to hand No 10 aides golden goodbyes.
In one of his final acts as PM, he ordered that pay-offs to long-serving advisers should rise by a third. Mr Oliver and others were handed an extra £17,500 on top of their already generous deals.
Mr Cameron’s resignation hon- ours list is likely to include Ed Llewellyn, his former chief of staff, head of his policy unit Camilla Cavendish, and Chris Lockwood, a former adviser. Mr Llewellyn is also being lined up as Britain’s ambassador to France.
In addition the list is said to include Gabby Bertin, his director of external communications, who worked as his press secretary. She could get a peerage, as could Laura Trott, his head of strategic communications.
It could also feature donors and figures who contributed to the campaign to keep Britain in the EU. Former Chancellor George Osborne is also said to have put forward associates for honours.
The names may be published as early as next week, but they could be delayed until later this summer.
Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, argued that only people with public service that ‘genuinely merits’ an honour should receive one. He said the way the honours system had been used by a string of prime ministers had undermined it in the public’s eyes.
‘There has always been a bad smell about it,’ he said. ‘People think it’s the PM passing honours to their cronies rather than genuinely rewarding public servants.’ Departing premiers are allowed to nominate associates for honours after quitting. Mr Cameron stepped down a month ago after the Brexit vote, and the resignation honours were due to have been published by now.
But it was reported yesterday that the list was delayed after senior officials in the Cabinet Office raised concerns. The Appointments Commission was also said to have raised objections.
A source told The Times: ‘David Cameron put forward a number of names. Some of them did not even make it past the first hurdle – the Cabinet Office.’
Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour Party, said: ‘Given the former PM previously claimed to want to “clean up the political system” this level of cronyism is astounding.’
Downing Street and Mr Oliver declined to comment last night.
‘There’s always been a bad smell’