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Nearly a quarter of the nobility titles awarded this year have been to Conservative party donors, close associates or former colleagues of Boris Johnson, according to an analysis by The Guardian, raising new concerns about cronyism.
On Tuesday, in a highly unusual move, the prime minister announced that he had bestowed a noble title on conservative donor Peter Cruddas, defying the advice of the House of Lords.
Cruddas is one of 13 of 54 people ennobled this year who have financed the Conservatives or who have a job or personal connection to Johnson, The Guardian has established. The list includes three donors, four people who worked at the Telegraph with Johnson and four who worked with him at City Hall when he was Mayor of London.
The prime minister’s brother Jo Johnson, who retired from the cabinet and was a deputy last year, was also named a peer this year, as was Evgeny Lebedev, a friend of Boris Johnson. Johnson is reported to have attended at least four weekend parties at the restored Perugia mansion of the Russian-born newspaper owner.
The Electoral Reform Society (ERS), which wants a second chamber elected, said the appointments gave the impression that prime ministers were “capable of appointing donors and allies on a whim, and in unlimited numbers.” This year’s nobility titles have brought the total size of the Lords to more than 830, despite a cross-party agreement three years ago that the numbers should eventually drop to 600.
Willie Sullivan, ERS Senior Director, said: “The Lords was already packed with donors and party loyalists, but the past year has seen a bad situation that got even worse.
“It would be tempting to call the cronyism of the Lords an abuse of the system, but the system itself is fundamentally broken. This situation cannot continue. Public trust is on the rocks. “
Boris Johnson’s teammates – graphic
Cruddas resigned as Conservative co-treasurer in 2012 after the Sunday Times claimed he was offering access to the prime minister for up to £ 250,000. Cruddas was eventually awarded £ 50,000 in damages after a libel action, although aspects of the allegations were confirmed.
In addition to Cruddas, two more donors and former party treasurers, Aamer Sarfraz and Michael Spencer, have been ennobled this year. Spencer’s personal investment firm, IPGL, also donated £ 20,000 directly to Johnson’s leadership campaign.
Charles Moore, who was reported to be the government’s choice to be the next BBC president until it was scrapped, and Dean Godson, the head of the Policy Exchange think tank, worked on the Spectator and the Telegraph with Johnson and received titles. nobiliaries. this year. They were joined by two other former Telegraph colleagues, former Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan and Veronica Wadley.
Wadley was also Johnson’s senior adviser when he was mayor of London, having previously defended his candidacy and criticized his current opponent, Ken Livingstone, while she was editor of the Evening Standard.
Lebedev replaced Wadley as editor when he bought the Standard in 2009, but the newspaper continued to fully support Johnson in his 2012 re-election campaign, running an unusual editorial on the front page urging voters to back the “right choice for London.”
Two of Johnson’s former deputy mayors from his days on the City Council became peers this year: Sir Edward Lister, recently appointed as Johnson’s acting chief of staff after the departure of Dominic Cummings, and Stephen Greenhalgh, who was appointed directly. to the upper house to serve as a minister. The list of ennobled former City Council colleagues is completed by Daniel Moylan, who was Johnson’s senior aviation adviser and championed the failed Thames Estuary Airport plan on “Boris Island.”
James Wharton, the former Stockton South MP who was the director of Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign, was named a partner in August. He was the subject of a political dispute last week over his qualifications to be the government’s preferred candidate for president of the Office for Students, the independent watchdog charged with regulating universities.
10 have not been reached for comment.
