It’s Boris Johnson’s disheartening, shoddy honours list – and it becomes him | Hugh Muir

Allies preferred, cronies rewarded – it’s a list evoking all that was wrong with the ex-PM’s chaotic and damaging years in office

If nothing became Boris Johnson more than the manner of his leaving No 10, nothing says more about the political rot he accelerated than the honours list that trails behind him and his announcement tonight that he will quit parliament having been told he faces ignominious suspension.

To scan the list that was perhaps his final act in frontline politics is to relive the era of cronyism and maladministration that he inflicted on the country. It redefined the very idea of honours as a reward for public service, replacing it with the sort of cheap favour you bestow on friends by buying them a seaside hat or a round in the pub.

Hugh Muir is a Guardian columnist

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