H ONOURS ARE not always honoured. John Hayes, a Eurosceptic Conservative MP, discovered as much when he was awarded a knighthood on November 23rd. Rather than congratulate him, some fellow Tories subjected him to ridicule, suggesting that the title was an inducement to back the government’s unpopular Brexit deal. One fellow Brexiteer, feeling betrayed, had some advice for Sir John regarding his coat of arms: “Could I cheekily suggest a crest with an utter cock rampant on one side and a big chicken on the other.”

In the run-up to Parliament’s vote on the deal on December 11th, government whips are scrambling to win MP s’ support. But whips are less powerful than they used to be. Although the House of Commons is still a wildly unprofessional workplace, threats of physical violence are these days frowned upon. And jobs on influential select committees are no longer the whips’ to give out as rewards for loyalty, instead being distributed by MP s among themselves.

The honours system is one weapon still in their arsenal. The chief whips of both main parties sit on the committee that decides which MP s are to receive gongs, in an arrangement labelled “inappropriate” by the House of Commons’ own Public Administration Select Committee. And they seem to be using the power freely. Whereas during 13 years of Labour government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown only a couple of sitting Labour MP s were made knights or dames, in the eight years since the Conservatives took office at least 35 Tory MP s have received such honours, according to our tally (see chart).