
Jacob Rees-Mogg has been awarded a knighthood by his close friend, Boris Johnson.
The former cabinet minister becomes a ‘Sir’ in the former prime minister’s birthday honours list.
Other Johnson allies to receive gongs include Priti Patel and Andrea Jenkyns, who become dames, and Simon Clarke and Michael Fabricant, who both get knighthoods.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s press spokesman, Ross Kempsell, is to receive a peerage and will enter the House of Lords, alongwith Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen and former London mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey.
Lord Newby, the Lib Dem leader in the Lords, said: “This is a clear failure of leadership from Rishi Sunak. His promise to govern with integrity has been utterly broken.
“Boris Johnson caused crisis after crisis in this country. His lack of honour means he didn’t deserve an honours list in the first place.
“Yet Sunak has caved in, rewarding Johnson for his reckless behaviour as Prime Minister. The British public will be outraged at this out of touch decision.
“Rishi Sunak needs to come before Parliament immediately to justify his cowardly failure to block Boris Johnson’s Honours list.”
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