A history of the UK’s honours scandals

In an unusual move, four serving cabinet members were honoured in Cameron’s list: Philip Hammond, who had recently taken on the role of chancellor; Michael Fallon, the defence secretary; David Lidington, the leader of the House of ­Commons; and Patrick McLoughlin, the Tory party chairman. 

“Normally politicians can expect to be honoured at the end of their time in office, not in mid-career or when they have just taken on a new cabinet job,” The Sunday Times noted in a critical leader. 

Knighthoods were also given to two Tory Party donors who gave significant contributions to the “Remain” campaign, and a CBE was awarded to Will Straw, the campaign’s director, leading the newspaper to accuse Cameron of handing out honours as “consolation prizes” and “rewards for failure”.

Newspapers also balked at the award of an OBE to Samantha Cameron’s stylist, Isabel Spearman, as well as to other close aides and assistants who worked with cabinet members. One Whitehall source remarked to The Sunday Times: “They must have gone through the No. 10 staff list when they were compiling the nominations. I’m surprised Larry [the Downing Street cat] is not in there.”

CBE fixed by Prince Charles’ aides

In another scandal over honours, The Sunday Times said billionaire businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz was given a CBE by Prince Charles in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2016 after he paid “tens of thousands of pounds to fixers with links to the prince who had told him they could secure the honour.”

Mahfouz donated millions to restoration projects of interest to Charles, including Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey in Scotland. The Saudi national was keen to secure British citizenship or residency through a so-called “golden visa” for investment, and “had been advised that securing as many honorary roles and awards as possible would help his cause”, said the paper.

It is alleged that Michael Fawcett, a former valet to the prince and an indispensable aide, helped to co-ordinate Mahfouz’s application for British citizenship and even helped to “upgrade” the proposed honour from OBE to CBE.

The Sunday Times claimed that leaked correspondence shows that Mahfouz’s aides were “explicit about the transactional nature of the arrangement”, and that large sums of money were being given to Charles’s charities to secure the honour. 

According to leaked emails from William Bortrick, the owner of Burke’s Peerage and a paid adviser to Mahfouz, he told colleagues that once Mahfouz was honoured, “then more money will flow”.

The allegations pose “serious questions about the conduct of those close to the prince”, said the newspaper, and will also prompt a “renewed scrutiny of the honours system and whether it is open to monetary influence”.

Arise, Sir Gavin

The decision to honour Williamson, who was “responsible for the Covid exams fiasco” in 2020, has been described “as an insult to parents, teachers and children”, The Times said. 

The former education secretary “played an integral role in [Boris] Johnson’s successful leadership campaign and was regarded by some as a potentially dangerous opponent on the Tory back benches”.

But the knighthood is also “controversial” as Williamson was sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May in 2019 after a Whitehall probe “concluded that he had leaked sensitive information from a meeting of the national security council”.

Some Tory MPs were also “scathing about the knighthood”, the Daily Mail reported, “suggesting it was a reward for remaining loyal” to the prime minister. “It will do nothing to enhance the public’s view of our discredited honours system,” one MP said. “He knows where the bodies are buried, and Boris has locked his shovel away.”

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/954041/a-short-history-of-the-uks-honour-scandals