A Conservative donor given a lifetime peerage so he could be a minister has been sacked from the government after just 26 days.
Dominic Johnson founded an investment firm with former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2007. Last month, he was given a seat in the House of Lords by then PM Liz Truss, who made him an investment minister. But he left government on Friday, as Ms Truss’s successor Rishi Sunak makes his own ministerial appointments.
Lord Johnson was vice-chairman of the Conservative Party between 2016 and 2019, and has donated more than £250,000 to the party since 2014. In 2007, he founded investment firm with Somerset Capital Management with Mr Rees-Mogg, a strong supporter of Ms Truss who quit the government himself when Mr Sunak took over.
Ms Truss appointed Mr Johnson to unpaid roles as a minister at the Department for International Trade and the Cabinet Office on 2 October. He was made a lifetime Conservative peer on 19 October, becoming Lord Johnson of Lainston. It was a necessary move for him to hold the roles, as government ministers have to be either MPs or members of the House of Lords.
An update to the government’s website has now confirmed he left both positions on Friday. However, he will now be able to keep his House of Lords peerage for life.
Members of the House of Lords who are not ministers or office holders are not paid a salary, but can claim an allowance of up to £332 per day attended.
Responding to Lord Johnson’s dismissal, Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said his appointment was “yet another example of Conservative cronyism” that would damage the UK’s reputation.
Meanwhile barrister Simon Murray, who also became a peer on October 19 to enable him to do a ministerial job, has been kept at the Home Office. However he has been demoted by Mr Sunak from a minister of state at the department to parliamentary under-secretary, a more junior position.
Pocket money for life for the lads … 