Liz Truss may be advised to scale back plans for a large resignation honours list, reports state.
Former Prime Ministers are entitled to draw up a list of candidates for peerages or knighthoods when they leave office. There had been questions over whether Ms Truss would be granted the privilege due to her short stint in No10.
Downing Street has said it is convention that all outgoing Prime Ministers issue a list despite Ms Truss serving just six weeks in the role – the shortest tenure of any UK Prime Minister in history.
Sources have told the Observer that Buckingham Palace officials may advise Ms Truss against presenting a long list after such a short term in office.
“These things are done in a very British way,” one source told the newspaper. “I think it will be clear that this would not be right. It will a be a case of … you don’t want to embarrass the King, do you?
“This situation is completely unprecedented. I am sure a lot of people will be saying to Liz you can have an honours list but it has to be a pretty small, not everyone in your office, not what David Cameron did.
He added: “She was a bona fide prime minister. She can do it but there will be a lot of pressure on her from the Palace, from the Cabinet Office, saying keep the numbers down, not using it to give out honours to lots of people. Simon Case would be saying, ‘Do it but don’t go mad.’”
Another senior Whitehall official that while Ms Truss should be entitled to a list, Rishi Sunak “should be making clear it that had to be quite modest”.
In 2016, David Cameron elected a large number of his staff to the Upper House, while despite being angered by her predecessor’s list, Theresa May handed honours to 20 members of her team.
In 1976, Harold Wilson’s honours, dubbed the "Lavender List", were condemned as lacking merit.
