According to a political rival, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson “discredited the honors system” after including his father, Stanley Johnson, on a list of around 100 potential candidates for a knighthood.
According to a report in the UK newspaper The Times on Monday, Johnson, who was replaced as Conservative Party leader last year by Liz Truss and then Rishi Sunak, added his father to an extensive list of knighthood candidates. Outgoing UK prime ministers typically submit a list of potential recipients when they leave office.
“You only have to say it to realize how ridiculous it is that Boris Johnson is nominating his father for a knighthood,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said.
On Monday, Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, told the BBC that Johnson has “discredited the honors system, discredited the office of prime minister.”
Johnson’s reported move will almost certainly reignite cronyism allegations leveled against him after he nominated his brother, Jo, for a peerage in July 2020. In October 2020, he was created Baron Johnson of Marylebone.
Stanley Johnson was a Conservative Party politician who also served in the European Parliament. In 2021, he was accused of inappropriately touching two women, with Johnson claiming he had “no recollection” of an alleged incident in 2003 described by one of the accusers, Conservative MP Caroline Nokes.
Neither Boris nor Stanley Johnson have responded to reports of a knighthood.
Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has the authority to confirm or deny knighthood recommendations. The prime minister’s office is said to be concerned about the size of Johnson’s nominations list, as well as some of the names suggested by the former prime minister.
A spokesperson for Sunak said on Monday that reports of Stanley Johnson receiving a knighthood are “speculative”.
