Rishi Sunak criticised for ‘surprise’ honours list including major Tory donor Mohamed Mansour
Rishi Sunak has been criticised for announcing a “surprise” round of honours – including a knighthood for a major donor to the Conservative Party.
It was announced on the Thursday before the Easter bank holiday weekend that Mohamed Mansour was being knighted for business, charity and political service – he had given £5m to the Tories in 2023 and is a senior treasurer at the party.
A number of Conservative MPs were also made knights and dames.
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Labour’s chair, Anneliese Dodds, said Mr Sunak‘s nominations were “either the arrogant act of an entitled man who’s stopped caring what the public thinks, or the demob-happy self-indulgence of someone who doesn’t expect to be prime minister much longer”.
Asked by Sky News if Labour would rule out giving donors honours if they were in government, Ms Dodds said giving money should not be an “automatic pass”.
Following the announcement, Mr Mansour said: “This award is the greatest honour of my life. I am thrilled and hugely grateful.
“This award would have meant so much to my father and mother. I wish they could have lived to see this day. This honour is for them, for the values they taught my siblings and I and for everything they did for us.”
Downing Street sources highlighted Mr Mansour’s work supporting charities – including financially backing a memorial to those who died due to COVID.
Speaking to Sky News, Conservative peer and polling expert Lord Robert Haywood said the public would be “unhappy” with the move.
While some non-political figures – like director Christopher Nolan – were also knighted, it’s the political acts that will draw attention.
Mohamed Mansour, who has been knighted by Rishi Sunak. Pic: Reuters
This will hardly strengthen confidence in the honours system
We’ve been here before.
Questions over who gets gongs stretch back decades.
The appointment of Tory donor and treasurer Mohamed Mansour inevitably relights the row.
Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of being “demob happy” and “self-indulgent”.
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to clean up cronyism in the honours system.
What that means in practice is unclear, although he has said he wouldn’t have a resignation honours list if he became prime minister.
We will wait and see if knighthoods are dished out to major Labour donors if the party makes it into government.
In fact, it’s the timing of this announcement that is potentially more interesting than the contents.
There isn’t usually an “Easter Honours List”.
That’s fuelled speculation of attempts to square off supporters ahead of an early general election.
Government sources deny that and say the answer is purely administrative – appointments to the privy council from the devolved assemblies were required, and so the prime minister also wanted to take the opportunity to honour other individuals too.
It’s a somewhat curious explanation.
But whatever the truth, the sight of another honour being handed out to someone who’s very much in the fold of party politics will hardly strengthen confidence in the behind-the-scenes machinations of Westminster.
Lord Haywood said: “I think people don’t like it, there’s no question about that.
“The problem is that you’ve got people who are genuine philanthropists who also give money to a political party, and that’s where the line isn’t differentiated.”
He added that he was “really surprised” by the timing of the list – but it probably doesn’t say anything about the timing of a general election.
Normally, honours are granted at New Year’s on the monarch’s birthday, or after the resignation of a prime minister, although this is a convention not a rule.
The timing of the announcement, while parliament is in recess, has also raised eyebrows – although sources suggested the timing was linked to the need to make appointments to the Privy Council, including the new Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething.
Tory MP Philip Davies was one of the Conservative MPs to be made knight. He is known for hosting a television show on GB News with his wife, fellow Conservative MP and minister Esther McVey.
Ex-sports minister Tracey Crouch will become a dame having run a review into reforming the UK football system, and farming minister Mark Spencer will also become a sir.
Treasury Select Committee chair Harriett Baldwin – a Conservative MP – will also become a dame.
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Away from politics, Mr Nolan and wife and producer Emma Thomas have been handed honours following the release of award-winning biopic Oppenheimer.
Dr Demis Hassabis, who co-founded Google’s DeepMind AI business, was also made a knight.
The government has been temporarily blocked from concluding the Chagos Islands deal by a late-night High Court injunction.
Ministers had been expected to complete a deal that would have seen the UK hand over sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius in the coming hours.
But in an emergency injunction granted early on Thursday, brought against the Foreign Office, Mr Justice Goose allowed “interim relief” to Bertrice Pompe, who had previously taken steps to bring legal action over the deal.
Ms Pompe is a Chagossian woman who sees the deal as a betrayal of their rights.
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The order, granted at 2.25am, states the government may take “no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer”.
A hearing is taking place at the High Court this morning, with crowds gathered in support of the block.
The location of the Chagos Islands
The government insisted this morning the Chagos Islands deal is the “right thing” for the UK.
A spokesperson said: “We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.”
It was expected that Sir Keir Starmer would attend a virtual ceremony today to formally hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, despite heavy criticism from the Conservatives and Reform UK.
The government has argued international legal rulings in favour of Mauritius mean this handover is necessary.
As part of the deal, the UK will lease back a military base on the archipelago for 99 years.
Robert Jenrick, the former justice secretary, told Sky News that the Chagos Islands deal is a “sell-out for British interests”.
He said: “You’re seeing British sovereign territory being given away to an ally of China and billions of pounds of British taxpayers money being spent for the privilege.
“So, if this group can force the government to think twice, then all power to them.”
With this injunction in place, Sir Keir can no longer legally complete the deal.
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Ms Pompe, who filed the application for interim relief, believes the British government is acting with disregard for the human rights of the Chagossian people.
She has argued completion of the deal would amount to a breach of the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act.
Chagossians are the former residents of the Chagos Islands, who were removed from the islands, predominantly to Mauritius, between the mid-1960s and early-1970s.
Those born on the islands and their children hold British nationality, but subsequent generations born outside British territory have no entitlement to it.
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