Two people 'reject Liz Truss honours nomination', as ex-PM puts forward 14 people after being in power for just 49 days
8 August 2023, 07:57 | Updated: 8 August 2023, 07:59
Two people are said to have turned down a place on Liz Truss' honours nomination list.
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The former Prime Minister, whose brief Downing Street tenure ended not long after a disastrous mini-budget last autumn, has nominated 14 people for honours.
Ms Truss has put forward four people for life peerages and 12 for honours like knighthoods, damehoods, OBEs, CBEs and MBEs.
That's the equivalent of one person for every three and a half days she was in No. 10.
One notable omission from Ms Truss' honours list is Kwasi Kwarteng, her Chancellor of the Exchequer, and fellow architect of the notorious mini-budget.
Read more: Truss admits mini budget caused 'disruption' but says Government is 'on your side'
The two people nominated for life peerages are Sir Jon Moynihan, a venture capitalist who chaired Ms Truss' leadership campaign, and Matthew Elliott, who ran the Brexit campaign in 2016.
Ruth Porter, Miss Truss's deputy chief of staff in No 10, and Mark Littlewood, the outgoing head of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a think tank, are also on the list of nominees, according to the Times.
One of the two unnamed people who turned down a nomination said it would be "humiliating" to accept, while another felt they had not earned the honour.
Ms Truss, who now sits on the back benches, will also nominate a "handful" of local heroes in her constituency of South West Norfolk.
The nominees are currently being vetted by the House of Lords appointments commission.
Labour MPs have called for Ms Truss' nominations to be blocked since she submitted the list.
Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: "It's outrageous that Liz Truss gets an honours list... and will shamelessly dish out completely undeserved honours to her friends."
Ex-Labour shadow Cabinet member Charlotte Nichols added: "I can't decide if it's more cringe for Liz Truss to have resignation honours, or for anyone to actually accept one in these circumstances?"
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By convention, departing Prime Ministers submit an honours nomination list. Rishi Sunak approved the nominations of his predecessor Boris Johnson in June.
Ms Truss' and Mr Kwarteng's mini-budget, which included major unfunded tax cuts, sparked panic in the financial markets in September 2022, causing the pound to crash against the dollar, with several pension funds nearly collapsing, necessitating a £65 billion Bank of England bailout.
Mortgage and government borrowing costs have since risen dramatically.
Ms Truss said later that it would be unfair to blame mortgage increases on the mini-budget. She also said that she didn't want to run for Prime Minister again.
Mr Kwarteng said: "People got carried away, myself included. There was no tactical subtlety whatsoever.
"There was a brief moment and the people in charge, myself included, blew it."
