MICHAEL Gove will be awarded peerage in ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list on Friday, it has been reported.
Gove is among a handful of former Conservative cabinet ministers who will be honoured, alongside former Scottish secretary Alister Jack.
A seven-person list has been reportedly drawn up for those who will receive peerages for “political and public service”.
Ex-chief whip Simon Hart and former Tory party chief executive Stephen Massey are also reportedly set to be honoured.
The figure is in line with the seven created by Boris Johnson and the eight by Theresa May in their outgoing lists, and more than the three nominated by Liz Truss, following her brief premiership.
The honours list will be the second one from Sunak after he published his dissolution honours list in July, when he created a peerage for his former chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith and a knighthood to Oliver Dowden, his deputy prime minister.
The former housing secretary, Gove, held six cabinet positions under four prime ministers during his time as a Tory MP before he stepped down last year, saying it was his “time to leave”.
Gove, who was born and grew up in Aberdeen, is now the editor of The Spectator magazine.
Last year, the SNP accused Gove of presiding over a “shambles” in local authorities and failing to develop social housing during his time as housing secretary.
In a letter to Gove, the party wrote: “Your recent interventions do not go far enough to address what, by your own admission, is a broken system.
“Despite the crisis facing Londoners, the Government has failed to step up and invest in the delivery of social housing.”
Gove also said no UK prime minister should “ever have a referendum on anything” again last year after being a prominent voice backing the leave camp for Brexit.
The then justice secretary set out his reasons for backing the campaign to leave the European Union in a 1500-word essay where he argued the UK would be “freer, fairer and better off” outside the EU.
