Honours committee 'blocks David Cameron's nomination of former Tory treasurer'

credit - Press Association

David Cameron’s resignation honours list has reportedly been delayed after the independent panel blocked his attempt to hand a peerage to a former Conservative party treasurer.

It was reported today that the independent advisory committee has refused to endorse the nomination of Michael Spencer, a financier who has donated £4m to the Tories.

The move follows controversy over a leaked list of nominees for honours, which included several Cabinet ministers, political aides of Mr Cameron and several prominent Remain campaigners.

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Both Labour MPs and eurosceptic Tories expressed anger at the list, which some considered unfairly slanted towards pro-EU figures.

Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said Theresa May should intervene to block her predecessor’s nominations.

"When you look at the list, it seems to me that the only thing that didn't get an honour was Larry the Downing Street cat,” he said yesterday.

Although Spencer was not included on the list leaked to the media, it was reported that he is on a separate “senior list” of people set for peerages.

A source close to the Commission told the paper: “We can confirm that we are unable to support one nomination.”

According to another Whitehall source Mr Cameron could speed up the acceptance of his list by dropping Spencer’s name. 

That would mean the Conservatives losing a peer in the House of Lords, as they are not allowed to replace Spencer’s name with another person.