Whatever charges are laid at Boris Johnson’s door, being niggardly with patronage won’t be one of them. There are two honours in this year’s list for former ministers he dismissed in the recent reshuffle: a damehood for Caroline Dinenage and a knighthood for Robert Buckland – the only Cabinet Minister to be dismissed who was at the top end of this site’s League Table.
Meanwhile, Robert Goodwill, a former Minister who pondered standing for the chairmanship of the 1922 Committee’s Executive earlier this year, is knighted. And so is Bill Wiggin, who actually did so (in 2020). Congratulations to all.
Elsewhere, a former Labour MP is knighted and another becomes a dame: that’s John Battle and Sylvia Heal. Frank Field becomes a Companion of Honour and Tony Blair, 14 years after leaving office, is made a knight of the Garter: the first of those awards will go down well with our readers and the second won’t. The relevant lists are here and here – but ConHome restricts itself as usual to the Parliamentary bits of them.