May’s farewell gong for Brexit bungler-in-chief
THERESa May has showered her political inner circle with gongs in her resignation honours list – including a knighthood for her chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins.
The most eye-catching award was a long-coveted knighthood for Mrs May’s childhood cricketing hero Geoffrey Boycott, and another for fellow former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss.
But the former prime minister also nominated a string of Tory MPs, former aides, party donors and civil servants for honours and peerages.
The knighthood for Sir Olly sparked a Eurosceptic Tory backlash. The senior civil servant spearheaded talks with the Eu throughout Mrs May’s time in number 10 and became a hate figure for hardline Brexiteers, who claimed he wasn’t tough enough with Brussels.
Last night it was announced that Mr Robbins will leave the Civil Service next year and take up a position as a managing director in the investment banking division of goldman Sachs. Former European Commission president Jose Manuel Barosso is now president of goldman Sachs in Europe. Mrs May’s allies defended Sir Olly’s honour, with one source close to the former PM saying: ‘This list recognises the many different people who have made a significant contribution to public life during Theresa May’s political career. it includes not only political colleagues but members of the civil service, civic society, the nHS and the sporting world.’
But a Tory Brexiteer MP said: ‘i would have thought a Legion d’honneur would have been more appropriate for his services to the European union.’
Mrs May named 51 people for honours, including 15 former political advisors, nine Tory MPs and MEPs, nine senior civil servants and five Tory party officials. She handed peerages to four senior Downing Street advisers, including her chief of staff Gavin Barwell. Her former director of communications, Robbie Gibb, is knighted. Former Tory party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin becomes a member of the Companion of Honour. Her de facto deputy David Lidington also receives a kBE.
Mrs May’s former political secretary Stephen Parkinson, and advisers Joanna Penn and Elizabeth Sanderson also become life peers. There are CBEs for the former Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis, and Mrs May’s official spokesman, former Daily Mail Political Editor James Slack. Former Tory party Treasurer Ehud Sheleg is knighted, and David Brownlow, former party vice-chairman, gets a peerage.
avid cricket fan Mrs May has long idolised Sir geoffrey, 78. appearing on the BBC’s Test Match Special two years ago, she praised his style with the bat. Sir andrew is knighted for services to cricket and for charity work he undertook in honour of his late wife Ruth, who died from cancer last year at 46. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn has nominated three new Labour life peers – ex-national union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower, newport City Council leader Debbie Wilcox, and the employment rights lawyer John Hendy QC. MP John Mann, who announced at the weekend he was quitting Labour to become a government anti-Semitism ‘tsar’, has been nominated for a crossbench peerage.
in other appointments, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick becomes a dame.