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Saturday, April 12, 2025

Rishi Sunak's resignation honours list announced

 Veteran cabinet minister Michael Gove has been awarded a peerage in Rishi Sunak's resignation honours list.

Mr Gove - now editor of The Spectator magazine - was first elected to parliament in 2005 and immediately joined then-Conservative leader David Cameron's shadow cabinet.

He was appointed education secretary when the party entered government in 2010 and held multiple cabinet posts until the 2024 general election, when he stood down from parliament.

Mr Sunak elevated seven allies to the House of Lords, including former cabinet ministers Mark Harper, Victoria Prentis, Alister Jack, and Simon Hart. Former chief executive of the Conservative Party, Stephen Massey, also becomes a peer, as well as Eleanor Shawcross, former head of the No10 policy unit. He also awarded a number of honours.

Eleanor Shawcross is wife of the life peer the Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise, and is a granddaughter of the late Baron Shawcross. 

It is traditional for prime ministers to award peerages and other awards upon their resignation from office - with key political allies, donors and staff often rewarded.

An outgoing prime minister can request that the reigning monarch grants peerages, knighthoods, damehoods or other awards in the British honours system to any number of people.

In the case of peerages, the House of Lords Appointments Commission vets the list, and for other honours, the Cabinet Office conducts checks.

Resignation honours are separate from dissolution honours, which are awarded by the incumbent prime minister and opposition leaders after the dissolution of parliament preceding a general election.

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