Gove becomes peer, Cleverly and Hunt receive knighthoods in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list
Former Cabinet minister and Leave campaign leader Michael Gove has been awarded a peerage in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list.
Gove is now editor Spectator magazine. Sunak has appointed several other key allies to the House of Lords including former cabinet ministers Mark Harper, Victoria Prentis, Alister Jack, and Simon Hart. There are also peerages for Stephen Massey and Eleanor Shawcross. The latter was a former head of the policy unit in Downing Street, and Massey was chief executive of the Conservative party.
The House of Lords is the largest legislature in the world with over 800 unelected members, with the exception of the National People’s Congress of China, which numbers nearly 3,000 people.
Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and former foreign secretary James Cleverly have been awarded knighthoods. Cleverly was frontrunner among MPs to take over the leadership of the party from Sunak until the final round of voting.
Andrew Mitchell said he was “humbled and grateful for this wonderful personal news” as he also received a knighthood. Theresa Villiers has received a damehood, while Mel Stride and Grant Shapps also received knighthoods.
Key events
Summary of the day
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Parliament is to be recalled tomorrow for a rare Saturday sitting to discuss the nationalisation of British Steel. The Commons is expected to sit at 11am and the Lords at noon. MPs will debate legislation to allow the government to “direct steel companies in England”, Downing Street has said
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Michael Gove is among seven new appointees to the House of Lords by Rishi Sunak in his resignation honours list. James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt, Mel Stride and Grant Shapps are among those receiving knighthoods
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Rachel Reeves has said that the government needs to go “further and faster on delivering growth that is felt by families up and down the country” after February’s GDP figures showed an unexpected growth of 0.5%, and January’s figures were revised up slightly
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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has called for Keir Starmer to convene a virtual summit of world leaders to present a unified response to the imposition of tariffs by Donald Trump’s US administration
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Analysis by PA Media suggests that Reform UK is running more candidates in England’s May local election than any other party
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Civil servants in 16 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MCHLG) offices have voted for strike action
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Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey has paid tribute to activist Anne Harper, who has died. The co-founder of Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures in the 1980s, Harper was married to former National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill from 1961 until they divorced in 2001
Thank you so much for all your comments, which I always enjoy. There will be a politics live blog tomorrow to cover the recall of parliament, and I should be back with you again on Monday. I hope you have as peaceful, enjoyable and restful a weekend as you can. See you soon.
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts MP has criticised Keir Starmer’s Labour government for taking differing approaches to Welsh and English jobs in the steel industry.
PA Media reports she said in a statement:
Parliament is being recalled tomorrow to debate the nationalisation of Scunthorpe steelworks.
But when global market forces devastated Welsh livelihoods in Port Talbot, Labour dismissed Plaid Cymru’s calls for nationalisation as ‘pipe dreams’.
In a real emergency, governments step up to defend their strategic interests. Plaid Cymru recognised the importance of Welsh steelmaking. Labour chose to look the other way.
When it was Wales, they mocked. Now it’s England, they act. Labour has taken Wales for granted for far too long – and the people of Wales won’t forget it.
After coming to power in 2024, the Westminster Labour government agreed a taxpayer-backed deal for the Port Talbot plant which was to provide £500m towards the construction of the new greener electric arc furnace at the site, with owners Tata paying £750m. About 500 jobs are expected to be created during its construction, however an estimated 1,900 jobs were expected to be lost with the closure of blast furnaces there.
Downing Street: parliament will debate bill to allow government to ‘direct steel companies in England’
MPs will debate legislation to allow the government to “direct steel companies in England”, Downing Street has said, suggesting it stops short of a full renationalisation.
PA Media quotes a Downing Street spokesperson saying:
The prime minister has been clear, his government will always act in the national interest. All actions we take are in the name of British industry, British jobs and for British workers.
Tomorrow parliament will be recalled to debate the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill. The Bill provides the government with the power to direct steel companies in England, which we will use to protect the Scunthorpe site. It enables the UK government to preserve capability and ensure public safety. It also ensures all options remain viable for the future of the plant and the livelihoods it supports.
We have been negotiating with British Steel’s owners in good faith ever since coming to office. We have always been clear there is a bright future for steel in the UK. All options remain on the table.
Support for the recall of parliament tomorrow to discuss the renationalisation of British Steel has been welcomed in several political quarters.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said:
With Putin’s barbaric war in Europe and Donald Trump’s disastrous tariffs causing economic turmoil, the future of steel production in this country is of real importance and nothing should be off the table in this matter of national security.
Tomorrow must be seen as an opportunity to come forward with a serious plan for the sustainable future of domestic steel production. The public rightly deserves better than political opportunism and grandstanding.
I hope across all sides of the House that this message is understood and embraced. We Liberal Democrats stand ready to help constructively bring about an outcome that delivers real change. All politicians would do well to remember the country is watching.
Green party of England and Wales MP Ellie Chowns said nationalisation was “the only sure way to secure this strategically important sector so vital to national security and British jobs”.
PA Media reports she said “Public ownership of key sectors like steel, water, energy and transport has always been Green Party policy. Nationalisation of the steel industry could also help drive the green industrial revolution. From wind turbines to trains, steel will be needed for the transition to a green economy. We must not leave the future of steel communities to the whims of multinational companies or unhinged American presidents.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also commented, with the MP for Clacton saying “China has no interest in keeping the steelworks open. Reform have been clear from the start that the only option we have to save this vital strategic asset – and thousands of jobs in the process – is to nationalise British Steel. We are calling on the government to do the right thing tomorrow and bring it back into public ownership.”
PA Media reports Farage also called on the government to acquire Liberty Steel Rotherham for its two electric arc furnaces.
Away from politicians, Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Lily-Rose Ellis said: “This parliamentary recall is a reassuring demonstration from the government that it is taking the issue seriously. The global race to a low-carbon economy is on, it’s important the UK and Scunthorpe don’t get left behind. The government must learn from the mistakes made at Port Talbot. We cannot afford to let that happen again, nor can it let steel production in the UK wither and die.”
Lib Dem deputy leader Cooper: Sunak peerages are ‘parade of political flunkies’
Eleni Courea
Political correspondent Eleni Courea writes:
Michael Gove has been awarded a peerage by Rishi Sunak in a resignation honours list branded by opposition parties as an “ID parade of political flunkies” by Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Cooper said their “fingerprints of failure are still felt on family finances”.
“They are rewards for the failure of a dreadful Conservative government that was rightly kicked out of office,” she said. “The fact that Rishi Sunak has dished out honours to his mates after all the damage they did is yet more proof of how out of touch the Conservatives still are.”
Read more from Eleni Courea here: ‘Parade of political flunkies’: MPs critical as Sunak awards Michael Gove a peerage
To whet your appetite for May’s local elections in some areas of England, the Election Maps UK account on X (née Twitter) has this aggregate of council byelections since last year’s general election.
It finds that of the 235 seats contested, Labour have won the most seats of all with 74, albeit having lost 42 seats. The Conservatives have made the most gains (24 gains) and have won 61 seats. The Liberal Democrats remained on 46, while Reform UK have made 14 gains.
Aggregate Result of the 230 Council By-Elections (for 235 Seats) Since the 2024 General Election:
LAB: 74 (-42)
CON: 61 (+24)
LDM: 46 (=)
RFM: 14 (+14)
IND: 12 (=)
GRN: 11 (+3)
SNP: 10 (+2)
PLC: 4 (=)
LOC: 3 (-1) pic.twitter.com/FI54WYUJrx— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) April 11, 2025
It puts Green party gains at three, and today co-leader of the party in England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay, was sharing news that Ruairidh Paton had won a seat in St. Ann’s, Haringey.
WE DID IT!!!!!! 🎉
Thank you to every single person who knocked on a door, made a call, delivered a leaflet — or simply believed that St Ann’s deserves better.
Thank you to the voters of St. Ann’s for this opportunity.
This is a historic victory, & it belongs to all of you. pic.twitter.com/c62tDIqpeP
— Ruairidh Paton (@Ruairidh_paton) April 11, 2025
House of Lords to also sit on Saturday over British Steel after recall of Commons
PA Media reports that the House of Lords will also sit on Satuday, from noon, alongside the highly unusual recall and weekend setting of the House of Commons. The future of British Steel is to be the subject of debate.
My colleagues Rowena Mason, Eleni Courea and Jasper Jolly have this report:
In a statement from the House of Commons, a spokesperson said: “The speaker of the House of Commons has granted a request from the government to recall the House at 11am on 12 April for the house to take forward legislative proposals to ensure the continued operation of British Steel blast furnaces is safeguarded.”
The form of how the government may take control of British Steel is not yet known.
Earlier in the week, government sources had said that nationalising British Steel was not an easy thing to do, and would be a measure of last resort.
One MP said the move was “going down extremely badly” with colleagues given no warning about the need to return to Westminster, when it had been well known for weeks that British Steel was in trouble.
PA media have published this full list of people awarded peerages in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list. It lists:
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Michael Gove, former secretary of state for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
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Mark Harper, former secretary of state for Transport
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Simon Hart, former chief whip of the House of Commons
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Alister Jack, former secretary of state for Scotland
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Stephen Massey, former chief executive officer of the Conservative party
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Victoria Prentis, former attorney general
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Eleanor Shawcross (Wolfson), former Head of the No 10 Policy Unit
Away from the world of politics, Sunak also requested from the king a knighthood for England cricket’s fast bowler James Anderson. James retired from test cricket in July having taken more wickets than any fast bowler in test history.
Rebecca Long-Bailey has posted on social media to mark the death of Anne Harper.
In a statement the Labour MP for Salford said:
I’m sad to hear that Anne (Scargill) Harper passed away. Anne was a community activists and co-founder of Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures, the first of a national network of branches. She consistently fought for political representation for working-class women, workers’ rights and anti-fascism. My condolences to her family. Rest in Peace.
Barnsley-born Harper was married to former National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill from 1961 until they divorced in 2001.
The BBC reports that Harper’s death was confirmed by her friend and fellow activist Betty Cook, and that she had been living in a nursing home after developing dementia.
Gove becomes peer, Cleverly and Hunt receive knighthoods in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list
Former Cabinet minister and Leave campaign leader Michael Gove has been awarded a peerage in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list.
Gove is now editor Spectator magazine. Sunak has appointed several other key allies to the House of Lords including former cabinet ministers Mark Harper, Victoria Prentis, Alister Jack, and Simon Hart. There are also peerages for Stephen Massey and Eleanor Shawcross. The latter was a former head of the policy unit in Downing Street, and Massey was chief executive of the Conservative party.
The House of Lords is the largest legislature in the world with over 800 unelected members, with the exception of the National People’s Congress of China, which numbers nearly 3,000 people.
Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and former foreign secretary James Cleverly have been awarded knighthoods. Cleverly was frontrunner among MPs to take over the leadership of the party from Sunak until the final round of voting.
Andrew Mitchell said he was “humbled and grateful for this wonderful personal news” as he also received a knighthood. Theresa Villiers has received a damehood, while Mel Stride and Grant Shapps also received knighthoods.
Parliament to be recalled on Saturday to discuss future of British Steel
Parliament is to be recalled tomorrow for a rare weekend sitting to discuss the future of British Steel. The Guardian understands MPs will attend a session from 11am.
The government has been under pressure to nationalise the industry after the steelworks in Scunthorpe came under threat of closure. Earlier care minister Stephen Kinnock said steel manufacturing was a matter of national security.
On Thursday, ministers were thought to have offered to provide funding for the purchase of raw materials such as iron ore and coking coal for Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces. That would have provided a stopgap solution to ensure the furnaces could keep burning while discussions continued about the plant’s longer-term future.
Chinese owner Jingye, which promised a “new chapter” in UK steelmaking when it rescued British Steel in 2020, said last month that the site’s two blast furnaces were no longer financially sustainable, raising fears for the future of 2,700 workers.
The most recent recall of parliament was in August 2021 due to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt, Grant Shapps and Mel Stride to receive knighthoods – reports
Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list is being confirmed today. Knighthoods are reported to be going to several senior figures from his time in government: Andrew Mitchell, James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt, Grant Shapps and Mel Stride.
More details soon …
Civil servants in 16 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MCHLG) offices have voted for strike action, PA Media reports.
Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote said:
This second ballot win shows the strength of feeling and solidarity among our members working for MCHLG. Management forcing through changes to the way they work negatively impacts them all.
Our hard-working members have shown they can deliver for the public while working flexibly, but the combination of office closures ending location-neutral recruitment and enforcing rigid office attendance policies removes this choice. Managers need to come to the table with meaningful alternative plans or face strike action.
PA Media has done an analysis of the candidates standing across next month’s local election in some areas of England, and has concluded that Reform UK has more candidates standing than any other party. It found
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Reform UK is standing 1,631 candidates, contesting 99.4% of seats. They have a full slate of candidates in 20 of the 23 local authorities holding elections. Research from the Labour party last week suggested at least 60 candidates were defections from the Conservatives
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Conservatives have 1,596 candidates (97.3% of seats), and a full slate in 20 authorities
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Labour have 1,543 candidates (94.0%) and a full slate in 19 authorities
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The Lib Dems have candidates standing in every seat in nine of the 23 local authorities, while the Green party of England and Wales have a full slate in five
We have produced an interactive guide to which areas in England are having elections on 1 May – with several areas having postponed them.
Speaking of the Liberal Democrats, their Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper has also given her view of today’s GDP figures for February. In a statement she said:
The government risks taking weed killer to any green shoots of recovery as the disastrous jobs tax is about to bite. With Donald Trump throwing the global economy into turmoil, ministers must face up to the new reality. They must scrap their growth-crushing jobs tax and jettison their misguided red lines refusing to negotiate a bespoke UK-EU customs union.
I mentioned earlier that Ed Davey was making a campaign visit to Shrewsbury ahead of May local elections across some parts of England. Inevitably, given the Liberal Democrat leader’s track record, there are photographs, and this time Davey was out in a canoe with local MP Helen Morgan and some of the Liberal Democrat councillors from the region.
Earlier, also with the local elections in England in mind, leader Nigel Farage was boasting of a council seat gain for Reform UK in Longdendale (Tameside). Claiming “Longdendale is the safest Labour ward deep in their heartlands” he described it as “Reform UK’s most extraordinary win yet”. Farage said “Labour’s vote is coming to us in the Midlands and the North”.
Reform UK took 46.6% of the vote, on an estimated turnout of 21%. Labour, the Conservatives and the Green party of England and Wales all lost vote share.
Richard Partington
Our senior economics correspondent Richard Partington offers some analysis of today’s economic news, saying the GDP figures offer Rachel Reeves some light as UK enters the Trump tariff tunnel. Here is a snippet:
It is now likely the first quarter of the year – when British business leaders had claimed to be slashing jobs at among the sharpest rates since the 2008 financial crisis – will stand as the high point of 2025 for economic activity.
The unexpected February GDP reading could bode well as evidence of Britain heading into the Trump-induced turmoil from a stronger starting point than first feared. Economists had forecast growth of only 0.1% in February, while January’s GDP snapshot was revised up from a fall of 0.1% to zero.
February’s economic expansion was broad-based, including a 0.3% rise in services output, suggesting that consumers were ready to look through a gloomy backdrop and kept spending. Resilience in wage growth – which remains above inflation despite rising pressures on living costs – no doubt helped. There was also little evidence that higher business taxes and weaker demand for goods from overseas were hitting manufacturing output
You can read Richard Partington’s analysis here: GDP jump offers Rachel Reeves some light as UK enters Trump tariff tunnel
Reeves: UK needs to improve trading relations with US – and other countries
Rachel Reeves has said that the government needs to go “further and faster on delivering growth that is felt by families up and down the country”, and said the Starmer administration was “resolved to do everything we can” to obtain a favourable trade deal with the US in the wake of Donald Trump’s unilateral imposition of 10% tariffs on the UK.
In comments to broadcasters after February’s GDP figures showed higher-than-expected growth of 0.5%, the Chancellor said:
It is welcome news that the economy grew strongly in February and, of course, the numbers as well for January were revised up. But we do know that we need to go further and faster on delivering growth that is felt by families up and down the country.
So, we are not complacent about these numbers, there is more work to be done. Which is why we are reforming regulation, reforming our planning system to ensure that we can get Britain building and continue to grow our economy.
Reeves also spoke about the government’s ambition for a trade deal with the US, saying:
We continue to engage with our counterparts in the United States, and of course we want to secure the best deal possible for British jobs and British industry. And we are absolutely … resolved to do everything we can.
But, at the same time, we also want to improve trading relations with other countries around the world.
It’s why I hosted the Indian finance minister in London this week as part of our economic and financial dialogue, and to try and secure a free trade and investment treaty with India.
It’s also why we are having a summit with the European Union in May to improve our trading relations. I’ll be travelling to Poland later today to meet with my finance minister counterparts from across Europe.
The increase in gross domestic product in February was five times larger than the 0.1% that a poll of economists had forecast, while January’s figure of a fall of 0.1% was revised up to 0.0% growth. The Office for National Statistics said UK growth was across all sectors of the economy.
Responding to news that the economy had grown by 0.5%, Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride said “Since coming to office, Labour’s choices have killed growth stone dead.”
Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson welcomed what she described as “these green shoots of recovery”, but cautioned that tax decisions taken by Reeves risked growth being “choked off”.
