May will not block Cameron honours
Ex-premier seeks to reward aides
Prime Minister Theresa May will not interfere with David Cameron’s resignation honours list despite allegations of cronyism.
Opposition MPs demanded a complete overhaul of the system after it was claimed the former Prime Minister has rewarded personal aides, political donors and Remain campaigners.
PRIME MINISTER Theresa May will not interfere with the official approval David Cameron’s resignation honours list despite allegations of cronyism.
Following a leak of the list, opposition MPs demanded a complete overhaul of the system after it was claimed the former Prime Minister is pushing to reward personal aides, political donors and senior figures on the losing Remain campaign.
The cronyism row was sparked by reports that Mr Cameron had recommended knighthoods for four pro-EU cabinet colleagues – Philip Hammond, Michael Fallon, Patrick McLoughlin and David Lidington.
Meanwhile, among those reported to be recommended for OBEs is Isabel Spearman, who helped Samantha Cameron with her diary and outfits for various engagements.
Mrs May was under pressure to intervene but a Downing Street spokeswoman said she would not interfere in decisions of the honours committees, which are independent of Number 10.
“It is standard for an outgoing prime minister to submit a resignation list,” the spokeswoman said. “The names on the list were at the former prime minister’s discretion, and they will now go through all the proper processes and committees.
“It would set a very bad precedent for a new prime minister to interfere in the official processes.”
Mr Cameron also requested a Companion of Honour award for George Osborne, who was dismissed as Chancellor by Prime Minister Theresa May, according to The Sunday Times.
Will Straw, head of the failed official pro-Remain campaign, was proposed for a CBE, and more than 20 Downing Street staff were recommended for awards, according to the report.
It was also claimed Mr Cameron recommended knighthoods for major Tory donors Ian Taylor and Andrew Cook.
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson called for resignation honours to be abolished and said Mr Cameron’s bid to reward his friends presented the worst of the “old boys’ network”.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, added: “I do recognise there are people who work incredibly hard in society, in community organisations, who should be honoured. I want to see a more democratic form.” But Conservative former Minister Desmond Swayne, who was previously Mr Cameron’s parliamentary private secretary, said an honours list was a “relatively light way” of paying off “debts of honour”.
Nominations for honours are reviewed by honours committees, which include senior civil servants and people judged to be independent of Government.
Each committee has a majority of independent members, with one of them chairing discussions, and reviews nominations for specific activities such as sport or arts and media. A Number 10 representative is invited to all meetings.
Tracy Edwards, a British yachtswoman awarded an MBE for her services to sailing, accused Mr Cameron of “paying off debts” through resignation honours. She was awarded an MBE in 1990 and said the most “amazing” thing about the Queen’s honours list is that regular people can be recognised.
Ms Edwards tweeted: “Slightly annoyed I sailed around the world to get my MBE when a trip around the Serpentine on a pedalo would have sufficed.”
It would set a bad precedent for a new prime minister to interfere. A Downing Street spokeswoman.
“WHEN I want a peerage, I will buy one like an honest man.” The words of newspaper magnate Alfred Harmsworth may date back more than a century, but the reaction to David Cameron’s resignation honours list proves the awarding of titles remains a prickly old business.
An OBE for his wife Samantha’s stylist, Isabel Spearman, is among those that have raised eyebrows. His recommendation of Will Straw, director of the Remain campaign during the EU referendum, for a CBE raises fresh charges of cronyism.
George Osborne, meanwhile, will join the likes of Stephen Hawking and Desmond Tutu as a Companion of Honour – the reward created by George V to recognise services of “national importance”.
The only surprise, one wag has noted, is the absence from the list of Downing Street pet Larry the Cat.
But controversies of this kind are nothing new. David Cameron’s choices have drawn comparisons with the infamous ‘Lavender List’ compiled by Huddersfield-born prime minister Harold Wilson when he left office in March 1976.
“The whole thing should have been reformed donkey’s years ago,” says Wilson’s former Press secretary, Joe Haines. “There have been several sordid lists in the past. They are usually payback for monies received and I regret that the same thing happened under our government as happened under Conservative governments. David Cameron has just overdone it. But that’s what prime ministers tend to do.”
It was Haines who christened the Lavender List, after the colour of the notepaper on which it was originally drafted. The paper in question (which Haines’s wife insisted was in fact lilac) belonged to Wilson’s political secretary Marcia Falkender, though she has always denied playing any part in choosing the names that appeared on it.
They included Wilson’s friend Joseph Kagan, the founder of Ellandbased Kagan Textiles, which made raincoats from the waterproof Gannex fabric he had invented. Wilson wore the coats and made Kagan a life peer.
But, by the end of 1980, Baron Kagan of Elland was behind bars for stealing from his own companies. Another recipient was property tycoon Eric Miller, despite growing rumours that the financial dealings of his companies had not been entirely above board.
Sure enough, investigations uncovered the siphoning off of large sums from his business, Peachey Property Corporation, and Miller committed suicide in 1977.
“He blew his brains out as the police were coming for him,” Haines notes bitterly. “Lord Brayley got a peerage a few years earlier too. He died while awaiting trial at the Old Bailey. The whole episode was not a happy event in our lives.”
Another name on Wilson’s list was Marcia Falkender’s older sister, Peggy Field, who became an MBE. As personal secretary to Mary Wilson, her principal duties were to type up the poems and ditties penned by the prime minister’s wife. A precursor, some might say, to the OBE for Sam Cam’s personal assistant.
Haines says he succeeded in having two names removed – that of boxing promoter Jarvis Astaire, later awarded an OBE in 2003 – and his own. He was adamant that he didn’t want to be associated with those on the list.
“When Harold offered me a knighthood I told him that I wanted to abolish the House of Lords, not strengthen it. It was possibly the most conceited remark I’ve ever made in my life. But I think it was a disgrace and there’s no justification for it.”
“The real problem is that it devalues the honours given to decent people,” he says. “I’m not saying get rid of the honours list altogether. There are many people that deserve it. But it is being disgraced.”
The David Cameron honours row has drawn comparisons with Harold Wilson’s ‘Lavender List’. Grant Woodward speaks to Wilson’s former press secretary, Joe Haines.