Boris Johnson has been accused of cronyism after handing the author of a book about the “wit and wisdom of Boris Johnson” a plum job overseeing peerages.
Harry Mount – editor of the Oldie magazine and contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail – will take a position as an independent member of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Labour said Mr Johnson was guilty of “pure arrogance” – claiming that the caretaker PM was using his final days in office to “hand out more jobs for the boys”.
Mr Mount – author of The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson – will join the commission which recommends people for non-party political peerages and vets nominees put forward for political parties.
Mr Johnson is reportedly keen to hand peerages to his most loyal ally Nadine Dorries and the Daily Mail’s former editor Paul Dacre as part of his resignation honours list.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “This a display of pure arrogance by Boris Johnson, putting his own leading crony in charge of stopping cronyism in parliament.”
The senior figure added: “Instead of tackling the cost-of-living crisis facing the public, the prime minister is using his last days in office for a final desperate bid to hand out more jobs for the boys.”
Mr Mount, in a recent piece for The Spectator, said Mr Johnson was “touched by a sort of genius”. He wrote: “Am I the last person in the metropolitan elite bubble who likes Boris Johnson?”
He was a member of the notorious Bullingdon club at Oxford University, and is reportedly a second cousin of former Tory MP David Cameron.
Lord True, minister at the Cabinet Office, welcomed Mr Mount’s appointment and said he “would like to congratulate” the veteran journalist on his appointment.
“Harry Mount brings a wealth of experience from his career, and has much to offer House of Lords Appointments Commission, and I wish him the best in his role,” said the minister.
According to The Sunday Times, Mr Dacre and billionaire Tory donor Michael Hintze are also said to be in line to be ennobled in the next couple of months.
Allegra Stratton – who quit as Mr Johnson’s spokeswoman after she was filmed joking about a Christmas gathering during the Partygate scandal – is said to be “tipped” for a peerage as part of the resignation honours list.
The latest appointment comes as Mr Johnson prepares to publish legal advice from leading QC Lord Pannick in an attempt to fight back over MPs’ investigation into whether he misled parliament over Partygate.
The QC’s document reportedly criticises the privileges committee’s failure to make a clear distinction between whether Mr Johnson intentionally or unintentionally misled MPs by saying he was not aware of rule-breaking parties.
Ms Dorries told the Daily Mail: “This expert legal opinion shows that the inquiry was a biased, Kafkaesque witch-hunt – it should now be halted before it does any more damage.”
But Labour MP Chris Bryant, the former committee chair who recused himself because of his criticism of Mr Johnson, said the “kangaroo court is The Daily Mail”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it’s very odd that the Cabinet Office seem to have commissioned this advice on behalf of a private individual, namely the prime minister – that seems a very odd way to behave.”
The Labour MP also said it would be “very odd” for Lord Pannick to attempt “to tell the House of Commons what to do”, suggesting the advice was “completely misleading or misjudged”.
