Former minister who urged Johnson to quit is given knighthood
JEREMY WRIGHT, the former attorney general, has been knighted for services to politics two days after he called on Boris Johnson to resign.
The Conservative MP became one of the most senior figures to turn on the Prime Minister when he said the partygate controversy had done “lasting damage” to the Tories.
Sir Jeremy will have been aware that his knighthood, approved by Mr Johnson, was about to be announced when he made the comments, as recipients are told several weeks in advance, a fact that will not have gone unnoticed in Downing Street.
Sir Jeremy said partygate damaged not only the reputation of the Government but “the institutions and authority of government more generally”.
He has not said whether he has submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM’S leadership to the Tory backbench 1922 Committee.
Knighthoods are also awarded to two men caught up in the Greensill Capital lobbying controversy. They are Nigel Boardman, the City solicitor whose report into the affair was described as a “whitewash” by Labour, and Charles Roxburgh, the second permanent secretary at the Treasury, who admitted to nine meetings with the financial services firm before it collapsed.
Also among political figures named in the Queen’s birthday honours is Arlene Foster, former first minister of Northern Ireland, who becomes a dame. The former DUP leader said she was “surprised and delighted” by the news, adding: “As a big royalist, it’s a huge honour to receive this damehood in the 70th year of Her Majesty’s reign.” Asked whether she expects people to call her by her new title, she said: “I’ll always be Arlene from Fermanagh.”
Maria Miller, the Conservative MP for Basingstoke and former culture secretary, is also made a dame, together with Nia Griffith, Labour MP for Llanelli and shadow minister for international trade.
Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham and former chief secretary to the Treasury, is knighted.
Tracey Crouch, the Tory MP for Chatham and Aylesford, who chaired a fan-led review into English football and beat breast cancer last year, has been made a CBE while fellow Conservatives Chris Skidmore, who represents Kingswood, and David Harris, the former MP for St Ives, have been made OBES.
Several UK officials who worked in Afghanistan at the time of the evacuation of British nationals from Kabul have also been included in the list.
Dr Martin Longden, former charge d’affaires, is made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George after spending two weeks in Kabul in August last year following the Taliban takeover.
Alexander Pinfield, the deputy ambassador in Kabul, who was working in Afghanistan until October 2021, has been made an OBE.
Others honoured include Andrew Mccoubrey, development director at the embassy; Katrina Johnson, consul general; Jason Oliver, the senior overseas manager, and Gemma Paolucci, the embassy’s head of counter-terrorism.
Last week, the Commons foreign affairs committee criticised the UK Government’s handling of the evacuation in Kabul but said that they were “full of praise” for “the personnel on the ground, who implemented a chaotic policy to the best of their ability”.