Priti Patel receives Damehood in Boris Johnson’s Honours List

Priti Patel has received a Damehood as Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list was published.

In Mr Johnson’s government, Ms Patel was the Home Secretary.

But in the lead-up to the appointment of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Ms Patel tendered her resignation as Home Secretary which was effective from September 6, 2022.

She subsequently returned to the backbenches.

The honours list was confirmed by the government after months of wrangling.

Rishi Sunak approved the list, which saw other notable names like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Simon Clarke receiving Knighthoods.

However, it was reported that Sir Alok Sharma was struck from the list.

Nadine Dorries also did not make the cut. She announced her plan to stand down as an MP, just minutes before the list was published.

Commentators have speculated her decision to quit was in protest at reports Mr Sunak wanted her removed from the list to avoid a by-election.

When asked why she decided to quit, Ms Dorries said:

“I can’t reveal everything. something significant did happen to change my mind… and I think it’s for the best.

“I’m not altogether comfortable with the way the party has conducted itself over the last year.

“I’m not happy with the events that took place removing Boris Johnson.”

Just hours earlier, she had insisted that she did not want to trigger a by-election by resigning.

The politician denied Mr Sunak had blocked her appointment to the House of Lords.

She won a 60% majority in 2019 with 24,664 votes, but with Labour so far ahead in the polls the opposition party will be hoping for a victory.

Sir Alok holds a 4,000-vote majority over Labour in his Reading West constituency and a by-election would likely be closely fought by Sir Keir Starmer’s party.

Mr Sunak had been under pressure from Labour to stop Mr Johnson from creating more lords, dames, sirs and baronesses, with MP Stephen Kinnock saying the PM had “caved in” to reward Mr Johnson’s “carousel of cronies”.

He said: “More evidence of just how weak Rishi Sunak is.

“Some of the people on that list, it just looks like a carousel of Boris Johnson’s cronies and frankly the Prime Minister has caved in yet again because there’s warring factions in the Conservative Party. ”

The Prime Minister’s resignation honours are granted by an outgoing prime minister according to tradition.

A Prime Minister can request the reigning monarch to grant peerages, knighthoods, damehoods or other awards in the British honours system to any number of people.

But they are often controversial as there is the perception that people are rewarded for political loyalty, or for making donations, rather than on merit.

Here is a list of the Asians on Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list:

Peerages
Kulveer Singh Ranger

Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Priti Patel

Despite being the shortest-serving prime minister in modern British political history, Liz Truss has also reportedly submitted a short resignation honours list.