David Cameron faces humiliating grilling by MPs over his controversial resignation honours list
Former PM was accused of cronyism after he dished out gongs to a string of political allies after he left Number 10
DAVID Cameron faces a humiliating public grilling from MPs over his cronies honours list, it has emerged.
The powerful Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs committee today announced it will probe the former PM’s controversial handout spree.
There was fury last week when it emerged the ex-Tory leader had doled out a record 13 new peerages to his close knit circle of aides and backers as one of his last acts in No10.
MPs on the Commons committee last night pledged to haul Mr Cameron before them to explain his controversial decision making in person as part of their wider investigation on what the Lords does.
Its chairman, veteran Tory backbencher Bernard Jenkin, said: “Peers should be chosen as the best people to revise legislation and hold the government to account, and not solely as a reward”.
One committee member, the SNP’s Ronnie Cowan, insisted: “Cameron should have to explain himself.
“I would want to ask David Cameron his reasoning behind his awards and how he can justify it.”
Mr Cameron could refuse any summons as MPs don’t have the power to force other Parliamentarians to appear before them.
But he would risk ridicule and disgrace if he did.
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Another committee member and Labour MP Paul Flynn added: “David Cameron has exposed the great weakness in an honours system where they can be bought or distributed like goody bags at children’s parties”.
A government minister told The Sun tonight that the current honours system was “something out of the 19th century” and its days are numbered.
The minister added: “I think the whole resignation honours thing is a complete anachronism and it should be abolished.
“It goes down very badly in the 21st century. “
Following the row over Mr Cameron's list, Labour offered to co-operate with the Government in rushing through emergency legislation to stop prime ministers handing out honours on leaving office.
It came after the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Lord Bew, said the list of 59 Cameron nominations for peerages and gongs "has to be the last one, given the public outcry".
In his resignation honours, Mr Cameron created 13 Tory life peers, giving the Tories 207 - one more than Labour.
Tory treasurer Andrew Fraser, and political aides Gabrielle Bertin and Camilla Cavendish, who both worked at Number 10, were all given peerages.
Knighthoods were given to Cabinet ministers Michael Fallon and Patrick McLoughlin and former ministers Oliver Letwin and Hugo Swire, while former chancellor George Osborne became a Companion of Honour.
Samantha Cameron's stylist Isabel Spearman received an OBE for political and public service.
There were awards, too, for Mr Osborne's aides, including OBEs for chief of staff Thea Rogers and her deputy Eleanor Wolfson, and an MBE for his constituency manager Jane Robertson.
And key campaigners in the EU referendum were also rewarded, with a knighthood for Andrew Cook, the treasurer of Conservatives In, and a CBE for Stronger In campaign director Will Straw.