Liz Truss supporters given honours in resignation list, as Labour slams awards as 'slap in the face'

29 December 2023, 22:34

Liz Truss' resignation honours list has been revealed, with donors and supporters among those given peerages.

Ms Truss, who resigned in October 22 after 49 fraught days in office, said that those honoured in the list were "champions for... Conservative causes".

But Labour and the Liberal Democrats hit out at the publication of the list, branding it "a slap in the face for working people" and a "shameless move".

The list had been freighted with controversy because of the disastrous mini-budget that ended Ms Truss' premiership.

It was published at the same time as the longer New Year honours list, in the middle of the Commons Christmas recess with MPs away from Westminster.

Tory donor Sir Jon Moynihan, who gave £20,000 to Ms Truss's leadership campaign, her deputy chief of staff in Downing Street Ruth Porter, and former chief executive of the Vote Leave Brexit campaign Matthew Elliott have all been recommended for peerages.

Novelist Shirley Ida Conran, who is also on the list, donated £5,000 to Ms Truss to support activity in her constituency. Ms Conran could become a dame for her services to mathematics education as founder of the Maths Anxiety Trust.

Jacqueline Doyle-Price, the MP for Thurrock, is recommended for a damehood following her service as Minister of State for Industry.

Another of Ms Truss' colleagues, Alec Shelbrooke, MP for Elmet and Rothwell, has been recommended for a knighthood for his political service as Minister of State for Defence Procurement.

Other honours in the list include CBEs for former special advisers Sophie Ina Jarvis and Shabbir Riyaz Merali, an OBE for Robert Butler, MP for Aylesbury, and Suzanne Webb, MP for Stourbridge, and an MBE for David Hills, Conservative Association chairman in South West Norfolk.

Following the publication of her resignation honours list, Ms Truss said: "I am delighted these champions for the Conservative causes of freedom, limited government and a proud and sovereign Britain have been suitably honoured."

Labour's shadow cabinet office minister Jonathan Ashworth MP said: "This list is proof positive of Rishi Sunak's weakness and a slap in the face to working people who are paying the price of the Tories crashing the economy.

"Honours should be for those committed to public service, not rewards for Tory failure. Rather than apologise for crashing the economy and driving up mortgages rates, costing families thousands, Rishi Sunak has nodded through these tarnished gongs because he is too weak to lead a Tory Party completely out of touch with working people."

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "This shameless move to reward Liz Truss's car crash cronies is matched only by Sunak's weakness in failing to block it.

"Truss handing out gongs after blowing a hole in the public finances and leaving families reeling from spiralling mortgage costs calls this whole honours system into disrepute.

"The honours system should celebrate hardworking people who have achieved great things; sullying this celebration shows just how out of touch this Conservative government really is."