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UK’s Cameron rewards allies in resignation honors

Controversy over Mr Cameron’s choices for honours was sparked by reports that he had recommended knighthoods for four pro-EU cabinet colleagues – Philip Hammond, Michael Fallon, Patrick McLoughlin and David Lidington.

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Shami Chakrabarti, former director of the human rights group Liberty, has been appointed to the House of Lords.

Mr Cameron’s former spin doctor, Craig Oliver, is also on the list, as are the special advisers to the ex-PM’s wife, Samantha, and Mr Osborne.

Former Treasury chief George Osborne – who was sacked by Cameron’s successor, Prime Minister Theresa May – was made a Companion of Honor, a senior award limited to 65 people “of distinction”.

Charlotte Vere, who ran the failed Conservatives In campaign at the European Union referendum, is also made a peer while Will Straw, the head of the Stronger In campaign, accepted a CBE despite pressure from Labour.

There were OBEs for Osborne’s chief of staff Thea Rogers and her deputy Eleanor Wolfson, and an MBE for his constituency manager Jane Robertson.

Yesterday, one of Theresa May’s ministers led calls for a parliamentary inquiry which would force Cameron to explain his nominations amid allegations of cronyism.

The former prime minister is facing strong backlash after the full list published on 3 August included gongs for 46 aides, allies and donors.

This is the first resignation honors list since Prime Minister John Major left office in 1997.

“These unelected peers will cost the taxpayer millions over the long-term – hardly a fitting goodbye”.

Mrs May ‘s Tory leadership campaign received a £15,000 donation from oil tycoon Ian Taylor and a £20,000 gift from a firm called IPGL.

“It has been reported that David Cameron proposes to hand out peerages to a large number of his friends, a move which would undermine the honours and appointments system and damage the reputation of our second chamber”.

Mr Cameron’s former policy guru Steve Hilton has also hit out at the list, branding it a “serious type of very British corruption” and a “symptom of a corrupt and decaying democracy”.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she would not intervene because it would “set a very bad precedent”.

“The fact she continues to refuse to do so only reinforces the fact that the Tories will always put their own interests before those of the country”.

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Ukip’s Douglas Carswell described it as “like a loser list from team Remain” while Natalie Bennett wrote: “David Cameron has with #honourslist demonstrated again that the 18th-century tradition of patronage has no place in 21st-century politics”.

David Cameron used his final honours list to reward his political allies