Sunak still hasn't learnt his lesson on cash for honours

Rishi Sunak's decision to nominate Mohamed Mansour, a donor to the Conservatives and a senior treasurer of the party, for a knighthood shines a light on cronyism.

- ANDREW GRICE

The prime minister, accused of being "demob-happy" by Labour, slipped out a surprise mini-honours list at Easter, in a break with the tradition of publishing it at new year and on the King’s official birthday in June.

Mansour, previously a politician in Egypt who now has British citizenship, has been honoured for his services to business, charity and political service. He handed the Tories £5m last year.

Now, I don’t think every party donor should automatically be banned from receiving honours or being appointed to the House of Lords. But Mansour’s knighthood tells us that Sunak has a blind spot about the likely public reaction.

Mansour does good work for charity, including support for The King’s Foundation (previously The Prince’s Foundation) and is a major contributor to the St Paul’s Cathedral’s Remember Me memorial to those who died from Covid.

But it is still a factor that Mansour’s “political service”, quite apart from his personal donations, involves drumming up donations to the Tories’ election war chest. His knighthood is bound to encourage others who would like to join him in the club to dip into their pockets.