Johnson nominates his father for knighthood

The nomination will raise questions about Johnson’s use of the honours system to reward family members with titles.

Former PM Boris Johnson with his father, Stanley, in 2019. Picture: Getty Images

Boris Johnson has put his father’s name forward for a knighthood in his resignation honours list, The Times can disclose.

The former prime minister included Stanley Johnson among as many as 100 names put forward for awards.

The list, which is going through Cabinet Office vetting, is said to be considerably longer than those of his predecessors. Theresa May’s resignation honours ran to 60 people while David Cameron nominated 62.

The nomination will raise questions about Johnson’s use of the honours system to reward family members with titles. He nominated his brother Jo, a former minister, for a peerage in 2020. He is now Lord Johnson of Marylebone.

The latest nomination will also be the subject of scrutiny after allegations by two women in 2021 that Stanley Johnson had touched them inappropriately.

He denied claims by Caroline Nokes, a Conservative MP and chairwoman of the women and equalities committee, that he smacked her “about as hard as he could” on her bottom at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool in 2003, saying: “I have no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all.”

It was also claimed in the 2020 biography of Boris Johnson by Tom Bower that his father had broken his mother’s nose. Charlotte Wahl told Bower she went to hospital after Stanley, then her husband, hit her in the 1970s. In the book Johnson’s father is said to “deeply regret” the alleged incident.

Stanley Johnson declined to comment on his nomination. A spokesman for Boris Johnson said: “We don’t comment on honours.”

The knighthood must pass through the Cabinet Office honours committee for approval. The full resignation list must then be signed off by No 10, a decision already complicated by concerns regarding the unprecedented nomination of four sitting MPs for peerages.

The House of Lords appointment committee is considering 20 nominations for peerages as part of the honours list. Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, Nadine Dorries, a former culture secretary, Nigel Adams, a former minister, and Alok Sharma, the departing Cop26 president, have been nominated despite being sitting MPs.

All four have agreed to defer taking their place in the Lords until the next election, but the government has signalled that it could block their appointments. By convention a peerage is considered conferred as soon as offered.

Asked in the Lords in November whether the government would allow deferred peerages for sitting MPs, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, a Cabinet Office minister, said: “It is a common-law principle that members of the House of Lords cannot sit as MPs and, as such, would need to stand down from the House of Commons. The government is aware that there is some precedent for individuals delaying taking up their seats, but this is limited and largely related to their personal circumstances.”

Boris Johnson’s brother Jo. Picture: AFP

The Lords appointments committee has raised wider concerns.

In October Lord Bew, its chairman, requested a meeting with Liz Truss, then prime minister, and Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, to say that recent proposals for peerages had put him in an “increasingly uncomfortable” position.

The power to deny nominations lies only with Rishi Sunak. The Lords committee can only advise.

In 2021 Peter Cruddas, a former Conservative Party treasurer, joined the Lords after Johnson overruled advice not to elevate him, a precedent Johnson’s allies hope the prime minister will follow.

Allies of Sunak have been concerned about the reputational cost of signing off Johnson’s peers. The nomination of his father for a knighthood, which passes through a separate committee, suggests further difficulty.

For Sunak to block any nominations could anger Johnson and his supporters. Last week Johnson said he would find it “very difficult” to vote for Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit deal.

Sunak may also be forced to rule on whether to suspend Johnson from parliament, should the privileges committee find that he misled the Commons.

The Times