Mark Harper gets a Peerage

[LNW-GW Joint]

Mark Harper, Secretary of State for Transport from 25 October 2022 to 5 July 2024, has been awarded a peerage in Rishi Sunak's resignation honours.
His record as Transport Secretary was I think undistinguished, with strained industrial relations, HS2 and other cutbacks and no meaningful progress on creating GBR or resetting the industry.
However, he had a career before transport, which included spells as Tory Chief Whip and junior ministerial roles in immigration and for disabled people.
He was also pro-car and wanted looser Covid regulations.

Grant Shapps, who was Harper's predecessor-but-one as Transport Secretary for 3 years 2019-22, has been awarded a knighthood.
(Anne-Marie Trevelyan was the forgettable interloper for the few weeks of Liz Truss's government in Sept-Oct 2022).

Here's the full list of resignation honours, which includes a knighthood for Jimmy Anderson which is one I think we can applaud.

Rishi Sunak's resignation honours list - in full

The former prime minister has handed out 36 honours, including to well-known ex-ministers and former advisors.

www.bbc.co.uk

Peerages​

Michael Gove - Held several cabinet roles under four prime ministers, including education, housing and justice. Now editor of the Spectator magazine.
Mark Harper - Former transport secretary and an ex-Tory chief whip.
Simon Hart - Served as Rishi Sunak's chief whip, and was previously Boris Johnson's Wales secretary.
Sir Alister William Jack - Served as Scotland secretary under three prime ministers.
Stephen Massey - Held the role of chief executive officer of the Conservative Party during Sunak's leadership.
Victoria Prentis - Served as attorney general and held other junior ministerial posts.
Eleanor Shawcross - Conservative adviser who ran Sunak's No 10 Policy Unit.

 

[dk1]

Now there’s a name from the distant past I never wanted to hear again.

 

[nr758123]

Grant Shapps, who was Harper's predecessor-but-one as Transport Secretary for 3 years 2019-22, has been awarded a knighthood.

Shouldn't that be Dame Corinne Stockheath?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Shouldn't that be Dame Corinne Stockheath?

Sebastian Fox is going to be really unhappy about that

 

[Class 170101]

Sorry but neither are worth their honours I'm afraid. Both useless and should go away quietly

 

[whoosh]

Sorry but neither are worth their honours I'm afraid. Both useless and should go away quietly

Agreed.

 

[Andrew1395]

The leader of Watford council got a peerage - 800 people are members of the House of Lords - The bar is set low now. Some are worthy but many are not. It’s so devalued, of the last eight Prime Ministers (that’s 35 years worth), only Cameron and May thought it worthwhile joining. Before Major every Prime Minister for 150 years became a member of the Lords except Heath.

 

[Class 170101]

The leader of Watford council got a peerage - 800 people are members of the House of Lords - The bar is set low now. Some are worthy but many are not. It’s so devalued, of the last eight Prime Ministers (that’s 35 years worth), only Cameron and May thought it worthwhile joining. Before Major every Prime Minister for 150 years became a member of the Lords except Heath.

Not sure Cameron joined the Lords just to be a member of the Lords. Would he have joined had he not been appointed to be Foreign Secretary? I'm not so sure.

 

[SuspectUsual]

only Cameron and May thought it worthwhile joining

You don’t “join” the House of Lords, you get nominated. What we don’t know is if any of the other six were advised they were being nominated and declined. At least two (Johnson and Truss) won’t have been nominated because of previous infighting with the people who could nominate them

 

[brad465]

Shouldn't that be Dame Corinne Stockheath?

Shapps is the first person in history to receive 4 knighthoods.

In recent years the entire honours' systems has been "dishonoured" to the point it needs abolishing entirely. Even ignoring the Empire aspect (that both ceases to exist now and is controversial for some aspects of it), it's been abused to reward loyalty more than actual merit. As a result, several politicians have them, and/or significant political donors. If honours were purely for "exceptional service", very few politicians of any leaning would actually have one.

 

[sor]

Cameron I'd be less bothered about (even though I think he caused a ton of damage to the country *before* the B-word). Ditto Gove. It seems normal for any former prime minister or senior government official to be offered a peerage at some point. With Lord Dave the controversy was in the reason why he suddenly took a peerage, as it is normal for a "great office of state" to be occupied by an MP and therefore answerable to the House of Commons.

I have more of a problem with the donors, low tier politicians, and especially "spads" all getting peerages.