Outgoing prime ministers can put forward a list of people to receive honours, ranging from peerages and knighthoods
UK's Cameron accused of cronyism over honours for allies
David Cameron was accused on Friday of cronyism that would "embarrass a medieval court" after he rewarded a long list of his political aides and allies with some of Britain's highest honours to mark his resignation as prime minister.
Cameron stepped down last month after he failed to persuade voters to back staying in the European Union in a referendum, and many of those on his "Resignation Honours" list were prominent in the campaign to remain in the bloc.
Outgoing
prime ministers can put forward a list of people to receive honours,
ranging from peerages and knighthoods to lesser honours such as
membership of the Order of the British Empire.
Among
the most prominent names on the list are cabinet ministers Michael
Fallon, Patrick McLoughlin and David Lidington, all of whom favoured
remaining in the EU.
George Osborne, who resigned as finance minister after the Brexit referendum, is made a Companion of Honour.
Also
honoured is Isabel Spearman, a former fashion public relations
executive who worked for Cameron's wife Samantha as a stylist and
assistant, and Thea Rogers, an adviser credited with smartening up
Osborne's public image.
Cameron's former spin
doctor, Craig Oliver, was given a knighthood. Three prominent donors to
the Conservative Party were also either made lords or knights.
Cameron's
list was attacked by opposition politicians and those who had
successfully backed leaving the EU, who argued that he was rewarding the
failed "Remain" campaign.
Leave.EU, a group that backed Brexit, said Cameron had "used his final 'losers list' to lavish titles and social status on personal friends, party donors and failed Remain campaigners".
Tom
Watson, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party said Theresa May,
who succeeded Cameron as prime minister, should have vetoed the list.
"The fact she has allowed this cronyism to go ahead shows that the Tories will always put their own interests first, Watson said.
Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the list was "so full of cronies it would embarrass a medieval court".
Cameron,
who has been on holiday with his family in Corsica, has not commented.
Media attention has focused instead on his striking swimming trunks,
said to have cost 225 pounds ($300). Downing Street declined to comment.
The
list also held some embarrassment for Labour, which appointed a
prominent human rights lawyer, Shami Chakrabarti, as a peer in the House
of Lords.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said last
year he saw no reason to appoint people to the unelected upper house. He
had also appointed Chakrabarti to head an inquiry into anti-Semitism in
the party, prompting Jewish leaders to say the review could not be seen
as independent.
A Labour statement said: "Shami Chakrabarti shares Jeremy's ambition for reform of the House of Lords."
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