Two former Tory MPs including Boris Johnson’s friend Zac Goldsmith have been sworn into the House of Lords so they can keep their ministerial jobs.
Goldsmith, who was ousted by voters in the December election, has become Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, the seat that he lost, and will keep his job as an environment and development minister.
Nicky Morgan has been given the title Baroness Morgan of Cotes and unusually stays on as culture secretary in the cabinet, having decided to quit the Commons at the election citing “abuse” she suffered while Loughborough MP.
The prime minister has been criticised for elevating the ermine-clad Tories to the Lords, and in particular Goldsmith, who is a friend of Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds.
The environmental campaigner wore synthetic ermine for the swearing in, while Morgan opted for real fur, a Lords spokesperson confirmed.
Goldsmith was once a leading champion for giving voters greater power to oust MPs via a recall mechanism, asking in 2014: “do we trust our voters to hold us to account or not?”
Morgan meanwhile told reporters during the election campaign that she had not been offered a peerage and once said she would refuse to serve in a Johnson government.
Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney, who ousted Goldsmith in Richmond Park, said: “Boris Johnson is making a mockery of his so called ‘people’s government’.
“This is the second week of parliament since the election and already Boris Johnson is rewarding his cronies with peerages.
“It is time we reformed the House of Lords as a wider package of electoral reform, rather than allowing the prime minister to use the unelected second chamber as a job centre for his friends.”
Willie Sullivan, senior director of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), said: “Prime ministers can’t keep packing parliament with unelected legislators.
“The government must bring forward plans for a genuinely democratic revising chamber to replace this discredited private members’ club at last.
“The bloated House of Lords is rapidly becoming a home for defeated MPs rather than a serious scrutiny chamber. The public want and deserve an overhaul of the unelected Lords.”
ERS research from last year showed that more than a third of eligible peers (36.9%) were former politicians, political staff or activists.
More than a quarter (223 peers, 28.8%) were involved in representative politics - many of them defeated - while 63 (8.1%) were former staffers or activists.