Veteran Conservative politician Michael Gove has received a peerage in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list.
Mr Gove, who stepped down as an MP at the last general election, features on the list alongside former chief whip Simon Hart and former Scotland secretary Alister Jack - both close allies of the former prime minister.
Mark Harper, who served as transport secretary under Mr Sunak, former attorney general Victoria Prentis, ex-Conservative Party CEO Stephen Massey, and Eleanor Shawcross, former director of the No 10 policy unit, have also been handed peerages.
Meanwhile, former Cabinet ministers Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, Grant Shapps and Mel Stride have been given knighthoods, as well as former England cricketer James Anderson.
Mr Gove, who held multiple cabinet posts over his political career, including education, environment, and housing secretary, never held one of the UK’s three great offices of state - but was a highly influential figure in successive Conservative governments.
He also ran for the party leadership in 2016, scuppering Boris Johnson’s leadership bid and sparking a long-standing rift between the pair.
Mr Gove went on to serve in Mr Johnson’s cabinet but was sacked in the final hours of his time in office after calls for him to resign.
It is a well-established tradition for outgoing prime ministers to hand peerages and other gongs to key allies after they leave office.
Mr Sunak had already awarded honours to a number of close aides, including a peerage for his former chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith and a knighthood for deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, which were handed out in a separate dissolution honours list to mark the end of the last parliament following the general election.
Meanwhile, Liz Truss sparked outrage with her resignation honours list by handing out peerages after just 49 days in office, which ended after she caused a meltdown in the markets following her mini-budget.
Mr Sunak had faced demands to block the handout of honours given the short-lived nature of her premiership, with critics branding the list “shameless”.
While Labour has vowed to bring down the number of peers in the House of Lords, Sir Keir Starmer has handed out a number of peerages since becoming prime minister - including to Sue Gray, his former chief of staff - and to several former Labour MPs who exited parliament at the last election.
The House of Lords has around 800 unelected members, compared with the 650 capped number of MPs.
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