Mark Fullbrook, Liz 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, according to multiple sources.
Fullbrook, whose tenure in No 10 has been overshadowed by questions over his private lobbying interests, is expected to depart along with Truss’s other advisers as Rishi Sunak takes her place.
Several sources told the Guardian that he had pressed Truss to sign off a resignation honours list for her closest advisers including Jamie Hope, her policy chief, Matthew Sinclair, her economic adviser, Iain Carter, her strategy head, and Ruth Porter, her deputy chief of staff.
One Downing Street adviser said Fullbrook had also been pushing for an honour for himself, but this was described as “incorrect” by sources close to Fullbrook.
Truss is believed to have rebuffed the idea of honours for her closest aides, who made clear they did not expect gongs for their short tenure in No 10.
Fullbrook, a close business associate of Sir Lynton Crosby, the Tory election guru, was brought into Downing Street by Truss after working on her campaign. He previously worked on the leadership bids of her rivals Nadhim Zahawi and Penny Mordaunt.
The Guardian reported last month that Truss was understood to have promised him that his company would run the Tories’ next general election campaign if he joined her No 10 operation as chief of staff.
Sources claimed the “quid pro quo” arrangement, which could be highly lucrative for his lobbying company, was a precondition of the strategist taking the job. It is unclear of the status of this proposed arrangement since Truss’s exit from Downing Street.
Since arriving in No 10 he has faced questions over his lobbying, after it was revealed that his business, Fullbrook Strategies, previously lobbied ministers on behalf of a controversial Libyan politician and a firm that supplied £680m of personal protective equipment. It also emerged he still owned a 10% stake in Crosby’s CT Partners, another lobbying firm.
A plan to pay Fullbrook through his lobbying firm was dropped after questions about whether it was appropriate and could have helped to lower his tax bill.
Truss had to issue a statement backing Fullbrook after it emerged he was questioned as a witness as part of an FBI inquiry into alleged bribery in Puerto Rico.
In relation to the FBI inquiry, a spokesperson for Fullbrook said at the time: “As has been made repeatedly clear, Mr Fullbrook is committed to and complies with all laws and regulations in any jurisdiction in which he works and is confident that he has done so in this matter.”
