Boris Johnson’s post-dated peerages for cronies are a constitutional novelty

The former PM’s reputation can hardly be made worse by his cheeky list, says Sean O’Grady

Are we surprised that Johnson, a questionable man, has created a questionable list? (EPA)

Predictably, Boris Johnson’s reported resignation honours list is a defiant compilation of cronies, donors and private jokes. In the candid words of one anonymous Conservative MP to Sky News: “What a shameful list of bootlickers, bimbos and tropical island holiday facilitators who between them can be proud to have pushed trust in politics to an extreme low during their tenures and offered very little in return to the British people.”

Then again, Johnson was never much bothered about any of that.

An immediate problem is the unsuitability of some of the names being proposed by the new prime minister on behalf of his predecessor to the King, by convention. They’re very much Johnson’s responsibility, his personal gifts of recognition on the occasion of his departure, as opposed to the usual run of honours in the New Year and on the sovereign’s birthday. But No 10 will always be wary of recommending questionable characters for vetting by the House of Lords Appointments Committee and, more informally, Buckingham Palace. So the twenty or so originals have been whittled down.