Independent oversight of honours nominations has come under increasing political pressure in recent years, current and former members of the committees which review nominations for lordships and knighthoods have said.
A number of committee chairs said they had been pushed out of their roles after failing to approve candidates backed by No 10.
Sir Vernon Ellis, served as the chair of the Arts and Media Honours Committee between 2012 and 2015. He told the broadcaster about one incident when his committee pushed back against a government nomination, who was a Tory donor.
“I felt that if he was given the honour, it would bring the honours into a bit of disrepute because people would say how can he possibly deserve this honour when in this other field there was so much kind of going on and noise and some of that was at his door, right or wrong,” he said.
Sir Vernon also talked about an exchange with the then cabinet secretary, the late Jeremy Heywood, after he had resisted pressure to honour a Number 10-backed candidate.
“He said ‘you know if you continue your position some things might happen that you don’t like, there might be some consequences’. And I said ‘really, what sort of consequences?’ He didn’t say, except said ‘sometimes, you’ve just got to be pragmatic”.
Sir Vernon said he soon found that his term as chair was not being renewed.
“My committee was outraged because they saw for what it was – it’s just because I had taken the stance ... The next time I...
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