Tory hands back honour in protest at Cameron’s rewards for ‘cronies’

A SENIOR Tory is handing back his CBE in disgust at David Cameron’s resignation honours list for his “cronies”.

Major Narindar Saroop said the former prime minister’s resignation list, in which he rewarded allies with honours and peerages, had brought the entire system into disrepute. The former cavalry officer, who was the first Asian Conservative to stand for Parliament, said: “Everyone I have spoken to who also has a decoration feels much the same way. They may not take the same action I am taking but there is a great deal of disenchantment.”

Major Saroop, who stood unsuccessfully in Greenwich in 1978, was handed his CBE in 1982 on the recommendation of Margaret Thatcher. But accord- ing to the Evening Standard he wrote to the Cabinet Office on Aug 4, the day Mr Cameron’s list of awards was published, asking for the correct procedure to return the award.

In a letter to the honours section at St James’s Palace, Major Saroop said: “There is little wrong with our honours. It is the demeaning contempt for it as practised by [Tony] Blair and Cameron which has led to such disen- chantment about an otherwise honourable institution.

“Mr Cameron, often with some pride, indicated that he was heir to Blair.

“This is now fully vindicated by his recent ‘Dishonour list’, which runs close, possibly even overtaking, the lists of Lloyd George and Harold Wilson’s Lavender List.”

Mr Cameron’s resignation honours list prompted allegations of cronyism, with a series of awards for aides, family friends and political allies.

With 16 new peerages, the list took the number in the House of Lords to 813, making it one of the biggest legislative chambers in the world.

Shami Chakrabarti, the former director of Liberty, became a Labour peer, while Tory donor Andrew Fraser and party co-treasurer Jitesh Gadhia were named as Conservative peers.