BREAKING: Rishi Sunak gives gongs to Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly - see honours list

Top Tories Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly have been awarded gongs in Rishi Sunak's delayed resignation honours list.

Mr Gove has been handed a peerage, and will soon sit in the House of Lords, while Mr Hunt and Mr Cleverly have been awarded knighthoods. Mr Sunak handing awards to his close allies immediately sparked accusations of "shameless cronyism".

Ex-Cabinet minister Mr Gove, who infamously betrayed during his first failed bid for No10, will be among seven names on the ex-PM's list. Mr Gove quit as an MP before the Conservatives suffered their worst-ever defeat last year and now edits the right-wing Spectator magazine.

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Former Chancellor Mr Hunt and former Home Secretary James Cleverly, who both still sit as MPs in the Commons, will become Sir Jeremy and Sir James after the knighthoods. Former Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell will also get a knighthood, while Theresa Villiers, former Northern Ireland secretary and a leading Leave campaigner, will get a damehood.

Mr Gove's peerage, who was one of the first names leaked from Mr Sunak's honours list, held a string of government posts under four Tory PM, including a divisive four-year stint as Education Secretary where he mocked the education unions and teachers as the "Blob". Mr Gove, who also criticised "middle class professionals" who took drugs, admitted in 2019 he was "fortunate" to avoid prison after using cocaine while working as a journalist.

Asked on Friday whether Mr Gove deserved a peerage, minister Stephen Kinnock said: "I think has done huge damage to this country, he's one of the architects of having a with no plan, which led to the botching of the deal, he's been at the heart of some really damaging policies... look at the mess we ended up in. I wouldn't be the person giving him a peerage."

Mr Sunak's resignation list, which was published on Friday afternoon, is also handed a peerage to former Tory chief whip . His recent tell-all book detailed stories of chaos under Mr Sunak, including an MP who rang him from a brothel claiming he'd been compromised by the KGB.

Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: “After tainting Parliament with the worst of the Conservatives’ slimy, backhanded politics, dreadful Tory MPs like Michael Gove rightly slunk out of office last year. It’s shameless cronyism for the Conservatives to return him to power through the back door. have long backed constitutional reforms to the Lords and the reasons why are on parade today.”

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