Honours outcry as Cameron rewards cronies
DAVID Cameron was accused of ‘sticking up two fingers’ to the country last night over plans to lavish gongs on pro-EU campaigners and political cronies.
Tory MPs led furious attacks on the ex-Prime Minister after a leaked list suggested he will shower knighthoods and other honours on a staggering 48 aides, allies and donors.
To the rage of many key figures in the Conservative Party, only one of those he plans to reward campaigned for Leave during the EU referendum.
Senior Government figures said they were stunned by the scale of his ‘cronyism’ – which apparently also includes nominations for his wife’s personal stylist Isabel Spearman, and ex-Chancellor George Osborne’s close aide Thea Rogers, who is said to have encouraged him to lose weight.
Two controversial millionaires – Ian Taylor and Andrew Cook – are said to be in line for knighthoods after donating to the failed Remain campaign.
In a devastating attack, Westminster’s ex-sleaze watchdog accuses Mr Cameron of going way ‘over the top’ and ‘devaluing’ the honours system. There are more gongs still to come – with a dozen or more Tory aides and donors expected to be given Peerages next month.
Tory sources said ex-party chairman Lord Feldman, Mr
Cameron’s old university friend, had played a key role in compiling the resignation honours list – despite being entirely unelected himself.
One ex-Cabinet minister said: ‘This is just appalling. He is brazenly rewarding people who were totally loyal to him personally and ignoring all those ministers who worked hard and loyally served the party and the country.
‘Secondly, he is brazenly rewarding those who were with him in his failed project to keep Britain inside the EU. There is no sense from this that he ran a country – it was a clique that he ran. He is just sticking two fingers up to the Conservative Party.’
The list was the subject of a leak to the Sunday Times newspaper. It includes the names of those Mr Cameron intends to honour. Whitehall made no attempt to deny the leaked list is genuine.
The Cabinet Office said: ‘We do not comment on leaked documents.’ The list appears to reveal plans for:
a hugely controversial CBE for Will Straw, the Labour activist who ran remain,
Knighthoods for two main Tory donors who have together given more than £3million to the party and EU remain campaign,
One of the highest honours in the land – a companion of honour – for close pal and exChancellor George Osborne,
Gongs for an astonishing 24 members of Mr Cameron’s downing Street inner circle – including a knighthood for his spin doctor Craig Oliver,
rewards for 20 serving or former special advisers from Cameron’s government, along with two of the former PM’s official drivers,
Knighthoods for four
‘Bring system into disrepute’
cabinet members who backed remain – Philip Hammond, Michael Fallon, david Lidington and Patrick McLoughlin.
MPs said the honours for the four ministers – proposed before Mr Cameron left downing Street – probably reflected the former PM’s expectation that the recipients would be sacked after he left office, and were for long service in public life. However, all four either kept their jobs or were promoted by Theresa May.
Last night one senior Tory said: ‘It is totally corrupt.’ another added: ‘Basically, Cameron is taking the p*** here. He’s rewarded his cronies and to hell with everybody else.’
Tory MP andrew Bridgen said the resignation honours list – the first since John Major’s days – would ‘bring the honours system into disrepute’.
Gongs for remain supporters were rewards ‘for people who campaigned for something the British people rejected’, he added.
Mr Straw’s reported award sparked fury in the Leave camp. Tory MEP daniel Hannan said: ‘For decades, gong-hungry corporatists and timeservers have backed the EU in the hope of preferment. This honours list is their last hurrah.’
Sir alistair Graham, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said: ‘a lot of Prime Ministers have done dissolution honours in which they look after their friends, but Mr Cameron has gone well over the top. Honours are supposed to be related to genuine public service and it’s very difficult to argue that all of these people have met the criteria. I’m surprised Larry the cat didn’t get one.’
andy Burnham MP, Labour’s home affairs spokesman said: ‘Many people voted Leave out of sheer frustration at an outof-touch political elite. This list reads like a two-fingered salute back to the public.’
The list is expected to be officially published next month, alongside a list of peerages. There have been suggestions it is being held up by concerns about the names of some of the donors on the list.
WITH his leaked resignation honours list, David Cameron has achieved a remarkable feat: he has dragged an already tainted system even further into disrepute.
Cronies, donors, jobbing spin doctors, the Chipping Norton set – just about everyone in the former prime minister’s gilded inner circle appears to have been earmarked for a bauble.
Even Sam Cam’s stylist has been put forward for an OBE, while the woman said to be responsible for George Osborne’s ‘Julius Caesar’ haircut and slimmer waistline has been deemed worthy of a similar honour from the Queen. As a Whitehall wag put it: ‘I’m surprised Larry the Downing Street cat is not in there.’
But it’s Mr Cameron’s recommendations of awards to no fewer than 48 prominent Remain campaigners that leave the most sour taste.
Forget that pro-EU donors marked down for recognition include businessmen who have been embroiled in controversies over lobbying, tax avoidance and even breaking UN sanctions against Iraq.
With its unmistakable implication that only Remainers behaved honourably, this list seems a calculated insult to the majority in the UK who voted Leave.
Meanwhile, it all but confirms this paper’s warnings that Mr Cameron offered honours to bribe eurosceptics to switch sides.
Indeed, won’t the knighthoods recommended for converts to Brussels such as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, Chancellor Philip Hammond and former Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire forever carry the taint of Judas’s 30 pieces of silver?
What is clearer than ever is that the system needs urgent reform if it is to regain respect as a means of recognising those who have served this country by making a genuine contribution in their fields.
As it is, Mr Cameron has merely confirmed the ever-growing impression that honours are a reward for failure – and up for sale.