Happy polling day one and all. While the political parties knock up doors, the Financial Times has brought some merriment to Westminster by revealing plans for the forthcoming Kings’s birthday honours’ list. There are the usual City grandees including the bosses of Barclays, Citigroup and the London Stock Exchange Group (up the workers eh?) But Steerpike’s eye was caught by the name of David Gauke, the onetime Tory Justice Secretary among the nominees.
In days of yore, Gauke was a favourite of Conservative high command, often being wheeled out in parliament to answer tricky questions. ‘Uncork the Gauke!’ would be the cry in the Commons whenever the Member for South West Hertfordshire got to his feet. But now Gauke’s name is more likely to be met by a barrage of Tory abuse. For he, sadly, was a casualty of the Brexit wars and ended up standing against Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in 2019.
Having been duly trounced in that contest, he ended up working with Labour government on sentencing guidelines and has most recently thrown his weight behind Prosper UK – the drippingly wet Tory campaign for a better yesterday. So it is perhaps no surprise that news of a knighthood for Gauke has not gone down well with Kemi Badenoch. A senior Tory source tells Steerpike that:
Kemi absolutely livid Labour nominated Gauke. She wouldn’t have him anywhere near any list. Starmer even snuck it through a random honours committee to stop Kemi vetoing it. He stood against the Conservatives, now he’s doing Labour’s bidding on sentencing and bagged himself a knighthood. Total Starmer stitch up.
Don’t expect Kemi to be doing a ‘Call Me Sir Dave’ anytime soon…
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