Boris Johnson has been accused of “cronyism” and of packing an already bloated House of Lords with new peers as he rewarded leading Brexiters with places in the upper house.
The UK prime minister on Tuesday awarded a peerage to Peter Cruddas, a leading City figure and former Conservative party treasurer, ignoring official advice that he should be blackballed because of his role in a “cash for access” scandal.
Mr Cruddas, a leading donor to the Vote Leave Brexit campaign who also bankrolled Mr Johnson’s Conservative leadership bid, was among 16 new peers announced by Mr Johnson.
Norman Fowler, the Speaker of the upper house and a former Conservative cabinet minister, denounced the prime minister’s decision to further increase the number of peers, which now has more than 830 members.
He said Mr Johnson had appointed 52 new peers this year, meaning that the upper house had almost 200 more members than the elected House of Commons. “Unlike other senates in…