David Cameron's controversial resignation honours list has been published, with gongs for political allies, Downing Street aides and prominent supporters of the campaign to remain in the European Union.
The list of 46 awards included knighthoods for Cabinet ministers Michael Fallon and Patrick McLoughlin and former ministers Oliver Letwin and Hugo Swire while former chancellor George Osborne becomes a Companion of Honour.
Notable by their absence are former Conservative treasurer Michael Spencer, whose nomination for a peerage was reportedly blocked by an independent advisory committee, and Tory donor Ian Taylor, who asked for his name to be withdrawn after negative publicity.
The former director of civil rights pressure group Liberty Shami Chakrabarti, who recently conducted a review of alleged anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, becomes a baroness at the nomination of party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Gongs for Downing Street staff who worked closely with Mr Cameron during his time as Prime Minister included peerages for chief of staff Ed Llewellyn, policy unit chief Camilla Cavendish, adviser Gabby Bertin and head of operations Liz Sugg, a knighthood for director of communications Craig Oliver, the Order of the Bath for assistant private secretary Nicholas Howard, CBEs for spokeswoman Helen Bower, special adviser Ramsay Jones, private secretary Tim Kiddell, policy unit deputy director Daniel Korski and press secretary Graeme Wilson, and OBEs and MBEs for several other advisers and spokespeople.
There were awards, too, for Mr Osborne's aides, including OBEs for chief of staff Thea Rogers and her deputy Eleanor Wolfson, and an MBE for his constituency manager Jane Robertson.
Samantha Cameron's stylist Isabel Spearman received an OBE for political and public service.
There were awards for key campaigners in the EU referendum, including a knighthood for Andrew Cook, the treasurer of Conservatives In, and a CBE for Stronger In campaign director Will Straw.
The list was denounced as "a sorry legacy" by democracy campaigners the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), which called on Mr Cameron's successor to "sort out this mess once and for all" by allowing voters to choose members of the Upper House of Parliament.
ERS chief executive Katie Ghose said: "For a Prime Minister who promised to cut the cost of politics, David Cameron is leaving a big bill for the taxpayer as he leaves office.
"His parting gift of 16 lords is a sorry legacy, both in terms of cost to the taxpayer and the quality of our democracy.
"Mr Cameron's Lords legacy could have been about real, democratic reform.
"Instead, he has unfortunately chosen to follow the well-trodden route of every other PM and packed the second chamber with former politicians, donors and party hacks.
"These unelected peers will cost the taxpayer millions over the long-term - hardly a fitting goodbye."
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "David Cameron's resignation honours list is so full of cronies it would embarrass a medieval court.
"He is not the first Prime Minister to leave office having rewarded quite so many friends, but he should be the last.
"For the reputation of future leaders, such appointments should be handed over to an independent panel."
Mr Cameron's former policy guru Steve Hilton has also criticised the list, branding it a "serious type of very British corruption" and a "symptom of a corrupt and decaying democracy".
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