Keir demands honours list answers from Rishi in PMQs grilling
Rishi Sunak has come under further fire for his decision to sign off Boris Johnson’s controversial honours list.
Grilled during Prime Minister’s Questions today, he insisted prime ministers from both parties ‘have always upheld the convention of non-interference on political honours’.
Sir Keir Starmer asked: ‘But the truth is for all his [Rishi’s] tough talk after the event, the Prime Minister did sign off the honours list.
‘That means that those who threw a Downing Street party the night before the late Queen sat alone at her husband’s funeral will now receive awards from the King.
‘If he is so tough, why didn’t he block it?’
Mr Sunak replied: ‘As I said, I and the Government followed due process and convention. Prime ministers of both parties have always upheld the convention of non-interference on political honours.
‘My predecessors may not have agreed with Labour’s choices of Tom Watson or Shami Chakrabarti, but the same precedent stood then as it does now. And I’d expect a knight like him to understand that.’
Sir Keir Starmer responded: ‘Honours should be for public service not Tory cronies.’
He asked Mr Sunak: ‘Isn’t this this case: He was too weak to block Johnson’s list, and that also means that those who spent their time helping cover up Johnson’s lawbreaking are rewarded by becoming lawmakers for the rest of their lives?’
Echoing the Prime Minister’s words, Sir Keir added: ‘Is his message to the British public “if you don’t like it, tough”?’
Mr Sunak replied: ‘It is right that we use the honours system to recognise people. Almost 2,000 people a year from members of the England Lionesses team to the first Asian police officer in Greater Manchester.
‘But he talks about putting people in the House of Lords: perhaps he could explain why he put forward for a peerage the former Labour MP Tom Watson who spread vicious conspiracy theories that were totally and utterly untrue, damaged public discourse ad inflicted misery on innocent people?’
Sir Keir then asked if Mr Sunak will block the honours list of former prime minister Liz Truss or ‘buckle to her as well’.
The Labour leader told the Commons: ‘There’s only one party that broke the economy and they’re sitting right there. And there’s a reason they can’t fix the problems facing the country because they never take responsibility for the damage that they’ve done.
‘And it’s not just Johnson – the Prime Minister’s immediate predecessor is hoping to reward those who made her reign such a rip-roaring success.
‘On her honours list are the masterminds of that kamikaze budget – the economic extremists of the Institute of Economic Affairs, those whose disastrous ideas crashed the economy and left the country to pick up the pieces.
‘Will the Prime Minister block that honours list or will he buckle to her as well?’
Mr Sunak replied: “If you want disastrous economic ideas all you have to do is (look at) Labour’s economic policy on energy. It’s an energy policy that seeks to ban all new British oil and gas drilling, jeopardising 200,000 jobs and our energy security at a time of international conflict.
‘Despots like Putin are the only people who will welcome such a policy. His predecessor once said he wanted British jobs for British workers – his policy is British jobs for Russian workers.’
Sir Keir concluded by furiously calling for a general election, saying: ‘End the boasting, the excuses, the Tory chaos, see if he can finally find somebody, anybody, anywhere to vote for him and call a general election now.’
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