Liz Truss’s decision to hand out peerages and top gongs to supporters of her short and disastrous premiership has been branded “the lettuce list” by her critics.
They claim the awards for the former PM’s allies and financial backers are the biggest honours scandal since the infamous “lavender list” approved by Labour PM Harold Wilson in 1976.
The controversial resignation honours – allegedly drafted on lavender notepaper by Mr Wilson’s No 10 aide Marcia Falkender – also saw him dole out peerages and gongs to supporters.
A prank suggesting Ms Truss’s brief and chaotic premiership was outlasted by a wilting lettuce went viral last year.
Ms Truss’s critics on social media dubbed her resignation honours the “lettuce list” – with claims the joke lettuce “has more right” to give out awards than the ex-PM.
Like Ms Truss – mocked for staying at No 10 barely longer than the shelf life of a salad vegetable – the recipients of her awards, including lifelong peerages, have been honoured primarily for supporting her in the same 49-day period.
The disgraced former PM – kicked out by her own party after the mini-Budget fiasco – gave peerages to Vote Leave campaign chief Matthew Elliott and pro-Brexit Tory donor Jon Moynihan.
A Labour source told The Independent: “This lettuce list is proof positive of Rishi Sunak’s weakness and is a reward for failure. Honours should be for those committed to public service – not for those who crashed the economy and sent our bills skyrocketing.”
The Lib Dems’ deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Liz Truss’s lettuce list is an embarrassment and symbolises everything that is wrong with the Conservative party.” She said the ex-PM’s backers were “responsible for flatlining the economy”.
Amid the backlash, the former PM’s ally Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg offered a desperate justification for her decision to hand honours to top Tory backers, and attacked her “po-faced puritan” critics.
Struggling to defend her legacy on BBC Radio 4’s Today, the ex-cabinet minister claimed it was political tradition to shower those “close to the government” with awards.
Sir Jacob – knighted as part of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours – argued that they helped “oil” the political system and were a tradition “fundamentally based on a people who were close to the government and close to the crown”.
Mr Rees-Mogg said Mr Moynihan – the ex-Vote Leave board member who donated £20,000 to Ms Truss’s leadership campaign in 2022 – had “strongly deserved” his peerage.
The ex-business secretary added: “Jon Moynihan has been a very significant supporter of the Conservative party, a successful businessman, somebody who has contributed a great deal to the political life of the nation.”
Challenged by Radio 4 host Nick Robinson if he could name the achievements of the Truss administration, Sir Jacob struggled to name any. “Liz Truss took on the most senior political job in the country, of being the prime minister, which is a role that comes with enormous responsibilities,” he said without much enthusiasm.
Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin was knighted
Mr Rees-Mogg also told Sky News: “Honours have long oiled our political system and cost nothing, so it is hard to see what the harm is except it upsets the po-faced puritans.”
Her resignation honours list was branded a “slap in the face” by Labour, while the Libs Dems described it “shameless” and campaigners called for reform of the “rotten” peerage system.
The Electoral Reform Society said it was an “insult” to see Ms Truss putting friends and backers in the Lords – arguing that it showed exactly why the “rotten and out of control the current peerages system” must be reformed.
Dr Jess Garland, the society’s director of research and policy, told Sky News the resignation honours were a “convention that has really got out of control”.
Former PM Liz Truss was accused of ‘shameless’ cronyism
