Former British Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for his own father Stanley Johnson to be knighted, The Times reported on Monday, infuriating the opposition.
British heads of government draw up a “roll of honor” as they leave Downing Street, listing the names of those they wish to knight. This list is then studied by a government committee and then by Downing Street.
According to The Times, the list of Boris Johnson, who left government in September and was forced to resign after a series of scandals, includes a hundred names. It would be much longer than that of his predecessors Theresa May and David Cameron, which included around sixty people.
The information, which has not been confirmed by either those close to Boris Johnson or the government, has fueled accusations of nepotism regularly leveled against the ruling Conservative Party and in particular the former leader, whose press regularly mentions attempts to return to power .
She greatly angered opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer. “It’s ridiculous,” he said on LBC radio. “Ex-Prime Minister Honors Father – For What Merits?”
“It’s a classic from a man like Johnson. I think it’s just absolutely outrageous for the public,” Keir Starmer said.
Stanley Johnson’s presence on this list is all the more shocking given that, as The Times notes, he was accused of sexual harassment and also domestic violence against Boris Johnson’s mother in the 1970s.
This former member of the European Parliament, who campaigned for Brexit, received French citizenship in May 2022.
In 2020, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed his brother Jo to the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament.