Rishi Sunak has slapped down Boris Johnson in the storm surrounding his resignation honours list.
The prime minister said Johnson asked him to “do something I wasn’t prepared to do”, when asked if No.10 intervened in the list.
Johnson’s allies blamed Downing Street for Tory MPs failing to appear on his list on Friday despite them being nominated for the House of Lords.
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, ex-minister Nigel Adams and Cop26 President Sir Alok Sharma were reportedly put forward by Johnson for peerages.
However, Sunak told the London Tech week conference: “Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do, because I didn’t think it was right.
“That was to either overrule the Holac (House of Lords Appointments Commission) committee or to make promises for people.
“Now, I wasn’t prepared to do that. I didn’t think it was right and if people don’t like that, then tough.”
Dorries and Adams have resigned as MPs since being omitted. Johnson also dramatically quitting over complaints about a Commons partygate inquiry, giving Sunak the headache of three separate by-elections.
Guto Harri, a former No 10 communications director who was made a CBE in Johnson’s outgoing awards, told Sky News the “relevant authorities” were “not happy with the scale” of the resignation roll and “some of the nominations originally”.