Decision to give CBEs to her two controversial former advisers and party donors is condemned

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Theresa May has been accused of “rotten” cronyism after handing out peerages, knighthoods and other honours to her closest aides, including her controversial former advisers Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, who left office amid accusations of bullying behaviour.

May’s resignation honours list heaps rewards on those who worked in Downing Street during her three-year tenure, despite her having previously poured scorn on cronyism under David Cameron.

The CBEs for Timothy and Hill are likely to provoke the most criticism, as they left their jobs following May’s disastrous 2017 election following anger about their abrasive manner towards MPs and staff.

The former prime minister once famously gave a speech suggesting Cameron’s decision to award a knighthood to his ex-communications director Craig Oliver made her want to be sick.

Her aides also briefed media in 2016 that she wanted to draw a line under the cronyism of the Cameron era, reserving honours for people for unsung heroes who have served their local communities.

However, the former prime minister’s list gives awards to at least 20 of her former advisers, including a knighthood for Robbie Gibb, her director of communications, and a peerage for Gavin Barwell, the former MP who was her chief of staff.

Three more of her long-term aides – Stephen Parkinson, Liz Sanderson and Joanna Penn – will be sent to the House of Lords.

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Several financial backers were also rewarded with peerages, including David Brownlow, who has donated more than £2m to the Conservatives, including cash for May’s own Maidenhead office, and two other Tory donors, Rami Ranger and Zameer Choudrey. Another major Tory donor, Ehud Sheleg, who has given the party almost £3m, was given a knighthood.

Olly Robbins, May’s EU adviser, who was loathed by Brexiters, and George Holingbery, her former parliamentary aide, were both made knight commanders of the order of St Michael and St George. It emerged on Monday that Robbins is to take a sabbatical holding a visiting fellowship at Oxford University before leaving the civil service to join Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division.

John Mann, who announced that he was standing down as a Labour MP this week to concentrate full time on his role as the government’s antisemitism tsar, was elevated to the Lords as a non-affiliated peer. May also gave a peerage to Sir Kim Darroch, the former ambassador to Washington, who stepped aside following a row about leaked criticism of US president Donald Trump.

Several MPs who have been staunch defenders of May were also rewarded with honours, including Brandon Lewis and Patrick McLoughlin, two former party chairmen, George Hollingbery, her former parliamentary aide, and Charles Walker, a backbencher who decried the party’s treatment of her.

The lowest honours, British Empire Medals, were given to a Downing Street housekeeper and chef at Chequers, the prime minister’s grace-and-favour country retreat.

Ian Lavery, chairman of the Labour party, said it came as “no surprise that big Tory donors and No 10 cronies are being honoured yet again”. “The Tories only care about looking after their own and will only stand up for the wealthy few who fund them,” he said.

Pete Wishart, a senior SNP MP, accused May of “handing out peerages like sweeties to the same Tory advisers who got us into this Brexit mess”. He said it was the “worst kind of cronyism, and demonstrates everything that is wrong with the broken Westminster system.



“Westminster is not working for Scotland. The House of Lords should have been abolished decades ago and the whole rotten system is in desperate need of reform.”

A source close to May’s former administration stressed that the ex-prime minister has had a long political career and that people from different walks of public life were honoured in the list, not just ex-advisers.

Labour’s nominations for new peers include Christine Blower, a former general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, John Hendy, an honorary professor at University College London, and Debbie Wilcox, the leader of Newport city council and Welsh local government association. The Green party put forward Natalie Bennett, the former party leader.

In other appointments, Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, becomes a dame, while Lady Justice Hallett, vice-president of the court of appeal criminal division, becomes a life peer.

Sir Simon Woolley, the founder of operation Black Vote, and Ruth Hunt, the ex-chief executive of Stonewall, were also made crossbench life peers.