Vorderman wades into Boris row and calls for followers signal petition to dam honours

Carol Vorderman has waded into the row over Boris Johnson, demanding individuals signal a petition calling for his controversial honours checklist to be blocked.

The TV presenter known as on her Twitter followers to “sign now”, noting that 260,000 individuals have already signed the petition, hosted on 38degrees.

The petition claims Mr Johnson “resigned in disgrace”, including: “Despite his actions around the Partygate scandal he’s still set to be allowed to elect a large number of people to the House of Lords as part of his resignation honours list.”

The former Prime Minister’s resignation honours checklist was revealed on Friday, a convention granted to outgoing prime ministers.

Included on the checklist are officers concerned in events held at Downing Street throughout lockdown, reminiscent of Martin Reynolds – nicknamed “Party Marty” for inviting employees to a “bring your own booze” occasion throughout lockdown within the No10 backyard.

Mr Johnson resigned with fast impact on Friday night after being handed the Privileges Committee report into PartyGate.

Darren Hughes, Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society, stated Mr Johnson’s resignation honours checklist represents a “new low” for the honours system.

He stated: “Boris Johnson’s resignation list demonstrates just how discredited and partisan the honours system has become.

“The further new friends being stuffed into the bloated second chamber imply that Mr Johnson has personally created greater than 70 new lifetime appointments to the Lords, which already has round 800 members and is the second largest legislature on this planet after China’s National People’s Congress.

“These latest peerages mean that Mr Johnson has been the most partisan ennobler since 1997, with almost two-thirds of his appointments sitting as Conservative peers.

“It additionally represents a shameful new low that the checklist has been shoved out whereas the previous Prime Minister continues to be below investigation and will face suspension from parliament.”

Meanwhile, Angela Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, described the list as a “sickening insult”.

She said: “Instead of tackling the cost-of-living disaster, the Tories are spending their time doling out rewards for many who tried to cowl up rule-breaking and toadied to a disgraced former prime minister.

“It’s a sickening insult that those who planned Covid parties and held boozy lockdown bashes while families were unable to mourn loved ones are now set to be handed gongs by Rishi Sunak.

“As Boris Johnson faces but extra allegations and investigations about his conduct, the privilege of an honours checklist is spectacularly ill-judged and wholly undeserved.”

But in his resignation statement, Mr Johnson launched a devastating political and personal attack on Rishi Sunak.

He said: “When I left workplace final yr the Government was solely a handful of factors behind within the polls. That hole has now massively widened.

“Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk. Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.

“We want to point out how we’re taking advantage of Brexit and we’d like within the subsequent months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda. We want to chop enterprise and private taxes – and never simply as pre-election gimmicks – fairly than endlessly placing them up. We should not be afraid to be a correctly Conservative authorities.

“Why have we so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US? Why have we junked measures to help people into housing or to scrap EU directives or to promote animal welfare?

“We must ship on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million individuals. We ought to keep in mind that greater than 17 million voted for Brexit. “