Knighthoods for MPs who caused Boris Johnson headaches

Two MPs who caused trouble for ex-PM Boris Johnson have received knighthoods in the New Year Honours list.

Labour’s Chris Bryant and Conservative Julian Lewis, who chair the standards and intelligence committees respectively, have both been honoured.

Sir Tom Scholar, the top Treasury civil servant sacked by former PM Liz Truss, becomes a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

Ex-minister and COP26 president Alok Sharma also receives a knighthood.

Sir Alok led the UK’s efforts to secure a deal at last year’s climate conference in Glasgow.

Another former Conservative minister, Andrew Stephenson, is made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).

And there is an OBE for former sport minister Helen Grant, the Conservative MP for Maidstone and the Weald.

Sir Chris said he was “very shocked” by his knighthood.

“I have no idea how this comes about,” he added.

The MP has represented the Rhondda constituency in Wales since 2001.

As chair of the Committee on Standards, he led the cross-party group of MPs who recommended suspending Conservative Owen Paterson from the House of Commons for 30 days after the MP was found to have breached lobbying rules.

The government’s botched effort to help Mr Paterson avoid the punishment is widely seen as the first in a string of scandals that eventually led to Mr Johnson’s resignation.

At the time Sir Chris was fiercely critical of the government, describing attempts to change the rules governing MPs’ behaviour as “the very definition of injustice”.

He also attacked the government over Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street, saying No 10 had become “a cesspit, full of arrogant, entitled narcissists”.

Sir Chris told PA News he was “surprised” to be receiving a knighthood and said it was an honour for the whole of the Committee on Standards.

“Everybody told me that the Standards Committee would be a quiet backwater,” he said.

“It hasn’t felt like that. I try, as does the whole committee, to set party allegiance to one side.

“Obviously the Owen Paterson moment threw a massive boulder in the middle of an icy pond but I hope the new code of conduct we agreed just before Christmas will set Parliament back on the straight and narrow.”

He added that he hoped the honour would help highlight his work on acquired brain injury.

Sir Julian has represented New Forest East in Hampshire since 1997 and during his time in Parliament has served as a shadow minister and chair of the defence committee.

He was kicked out of the Conservative parliamentary party in July 2020 after successfully standing against another Tory MP, Chris Grayling, to lead the Intelligence and Security Committee.

Mr Grayling was believed to be Mr Johnson’s preferred candidate but the other MPs, concerned the committee’s independence could be undermined, voted for Sir Julian instead.

Sir Julian was re-admitted into the party six months later.

As committee chair, he published a long-anticipated report into Russian activity in the UK, which accused the government of “badly” underestimating the Russian threat.

The honour for Sir Tom Scholar comes just three months after he was fired as the top-ranking Treasury civil servant by Liz Truss.

During her leadership campaign Ms Truss had been critical of the Treasury, saying it was not sufficiently focused on boosting growth.

Sir Tom’s sacking was seen as proof of Ms Truss’s determination to change what she called the “Treasury orthodoxy”.

Elsewhere, the senior civil servant at the Home Office, Matthew Rycroft, receives a knighthood and Lord Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary, is made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Damehoods have been awarded to the UK’s ambassadors in Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, and Russia, Deborah Bronnert.

Helen Grant, Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald and a former vice chair of the Conservative Party, is made an OBE.