At least two people have reportedly turned down honours nominations from Liz Truss, with one apparently being too “humiliated” to accept one from the UK’s shortest serving prime minister. Truss’s 14-strong list – which equates to an honour for every three and a half days of her 49-day tenure – is said to be currently being vetted by the House of Lords appointments commission. The South West Norfolk MP, who replaced Boris Johnson in Downing Street last September, had originally planned to nominate four people for life peerages and 12 for honours including knighthoods, damehoods and OBEs, according to the Times. One source told the newspaper they felt it would be “humiliating” to receive an honour from Truss, while another aide said they did not deserve it. The nominated life peers are reported to include Sir Jon Moynihan, a Conservative party donor, Matthew Elliott, who ran the Brexit campaign in 2016, and Ruth Porter, Truss’s deputy chief of staff in No 10. Another life peer is understood to be Mark Littlewood, the outgoing head of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a thinktank that had supported her mini-budget. Last October, sources told the Guardian that Mark Fullbrook, Truss’s chief of staff, pushed for many of her advisers to get resignation honours despite her government only being in place for seven weeks.
In June, Rishi Sunak approved his predecessor Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, which contained more than 40 names. The prime minister faced criticism for approving the list despite police looking at fresh potential evidence of rule-breaking in Downing Street and Chequers during lockdown, as well as an continuing parliamentary inquiry into whether Johnson misled the Commons. Hours before Johnson announced he was quitting as an MP, accusing the investigation of trying to “drive him out”, his honours list was published. Awards went to Johnson’s closest aides from the Covid era including an Order of the Bath for his former principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, who oversaw a garden party during lockdown restrictions in 2020. Johnson’s list made Charlotte Owen, a 30-year-old former aide, the youngest life peer in the upper house. He also gave a peerage to his chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield, and a CBE to Jack Doyle, his former director of communications.