Boris Johnson’s honours list is a loyalty test

Finally the day has come. After countless reports over the contents of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, the names are out. The Prime Minister has approved Johnson’s list. It includes a peerage for former No. 10 special adviser Charlotte Owen, who at 29 will become the youngest ever life peer. There are also knighthoods for Simon Clarke and former Tory chairman Ben Elliot. This is a slimmed down version of the original list – reported to include Johnson’s father Stanley – which officials advised the former prime minister to trim after it came in at nearly 100 names.

It is still not without controversy. The sitting MPs – Nigel Adams, Alister Jack, Nadine Dorries and Alok Sharma – tipped for peerages are absent. The expectation is they will be given peerages after they retire from the Commons so as to avoid tricky by-elections. However, Nadine Dorries has decided to spark one anyway – quitting as a Tory MP today in a parting shot to Sunak.