The Conservatives have also awarded peerages to:

  • Liam Booth-Smith, Mr Sunak’s chief of staff

  • Sir Alok Sharma, who was president of the climate COP 26 conference

  • Dame Eleanor Laing who served as deputy speaker of the House of Commons for over a decade

A Conservative source told the : “There is widespread disgust at the reward for abject failure in Rishi’s dissolution list.

“Sunak’s pledge to bring integrity back to politics when he entered Downing Street has proven to be a total lie – this an utter disgrace.”

Dame Margaret Hodge said she was “humbled, honoured and delighted to be asked to go into the House of Lords.

“Having immigrated here as a young girl, neither I nor my parents would have ever dreamt that I would become a peer of the realm.”

In addition to Harriet Harman, Dame Margaret Beckett and Dame Margaret Hodge the other Labour politicians to receive peerages are:

  • John Cryer, a senior Labour MP until recently representing Leyton and Wanstead

  • Kevan Jones, formerly the MP for North Durham and a champion of the workers caught up in the Post Office scandal.

  • Barbara Keeley – a former MP for Worsley and Eccles South and a former shadow tourism minister

  • John Spellar, a former MP for Warley, who served in several ministerial positions in the last Labour government

  • Dame Rosie Winterton, former MP for Doncaster Central and former House of Commons deputy speaker

Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon, who led the party in the London Assembly, joins the upper chamber, along with former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Thomas Elliott.

Minette Batters, former president of the National Farmers’ Union, will be a crossbench peer.

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