Why has there been a steady stream of leaked honours since 1997? Work it out for yourself
PETER °BORNE
It is very unfortunate and reprehensible,' Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's director of communications, is on record as saying, if people leak news of the forthcoming honours list.' Campbell is quite right on this point. It has traditionally been the case that honours are kept strictly private until they are gazetted by Buckingham Palace. The Queen is the fount of all honour. While in practice Downing Street decides who gets which gongs, honours remain in the monarch's gift. Leaking them is indeed a form of lesemajesty. Only those in receipt of honours know in advance, and they receive a ferocious warning not to share their happiness with the world until the day itself. That is why honours lists have traditionally remained such a closely guarded secret.
In recent years there has been a brutal change in this position. The publication of both the New Year and Birthday honours have been preceded by a string of leaks. Any newsworthy recipient stands a very good chance of seeing his good fortune splashed across the front pages of the tabloid press in advance of official publication in the London Gazette. This development dates back exactly five years, to the day when New Labour gained power in May 1997. Labour was at it within weeks of taking office. One government spin doctor leaked to friendly newspapers the fact that Delia Smith, the cookery writer, was to be given a peerage. Unfortunately, this piece of information caused mayhem because it was proved wrong — Smith had appeared only on an early draft list and had turned the offer down.
Take the New Year honours list just six months ago. Two weeks in advance of the big day, the Sun ran a long, confident, authoritative Page Three story that 'Pop legends the Bee Gees are to be awarded gongs in the New Year's Honours List'. A week later there was another leak. Beneath a prominent 'exclusive' tag, George Pascoe-Watson, the paper's indefatigable deputy political editor, revealed that the Tesco chief Terry Leahy 'will be knighted in the New Year's Honours'. In the second paragraph Pascoe-Watson was careful to make clear whose decision it had been. 'Prime Minister Tony Blair decided on the top award for Mr Leahy,' he reported. The following day it was the turn of the Sunday Telegraph to get in on the act. Francis Elliott, political correspondent at the Sunday Telegraph, revealed that the England cricket
captain, Nasser Hussain, was set to get the OBE. His story made a big Page Three lead.
This time last year, it was the Times which was given an advance gawp at the Dissolution honours list. The paper's political team revealed that Paddy Ashdown and Michael Heseltine were getting peerages, alongside David Clark, Peter Brooke and the unionists John Taylor and Ken Maginnis. Scroll back to the 2001 New Year honours, and the Sun was informed in advance about ace jockey Frankie Dettori's MBE. It was also the Sun which came out on top ahead of the Birthday honours list in the millennium year. George Pascoe-Watson pulled off the coup, securing exclusive information that Michael Caine was to be awarded a knighthood. Once again, Pascoe-Watson made plain that the decision was nothing to do with the Queen. 'The double Oscar winner,' he reported, 'will become Sir Michael in the Queen's Birthday Honours on the recommendation of Tony Blair.' He quoted a 'government source' who told him: 'We are going to sort it for Michael. He will get a knighthood. It is extraordinary that he has never been honoured in this way.'
There were leaks all round for almost everyone ahead of the New Year list at the end of 1999. Two weeks ahead of time, the Sunday Mirror splashed with the exclusive news that 'veteran comic Norman Wisdom is to be knighted'. But the big story was the award of gongs for the five members of the 1966 World Cup-winning squad — Roger Hunt, George Cohen, Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball and Ray Wilson — who had not already got them. As so often, it was enterprising Pascoe-Watson of the Sun who sniffed out the big story, and as usual he had no hesitation in identifying Tony Blair's sagacity and generosity of spirit as the moving force. A 'senior government figure' was quoted as saying that 'the Prime Minister didn't realise for some time that the England squad hadn't been honoured. It seemed ridiculous to him that some who played in that memorable victory had been honoured and others hadn't.' Pascoe-Watson was the conduit for the good news about the Richard Branson knighthood that year too, which came after an earlier nomination for the Virgin tycoon had been rejected. 'Downing Street insisted Prime Minister Tony Blair had nothing to do with the decision and made it clear the selfmade Virgin boss would not end up emptyhanded.' Pascoe-Watson then wheeled out a 'senior insider' who declared that 'Mr Branson's nomination is in the pipeline. The PM has no objections and has nothing but the greatest respect and admiration for him.'
The Scottish Daily Record broke the news that the actor Sean Connery was to get a knighthood. According to its political editor, Lorraine Davidson, 'the Prime Minister's official spokesman appeared to confirm the honour. He said, "It's very unfortunate and reprehensible if people leak news of the forthcoming honours list."' Davidson coolly informed her readers that 'it is understood news of the knighthood leaked out from Buckingham Palace sources'.
The Sun, however, was back in poll position when it came to the Arsenal footballer Tony Adams's well-deserved MBE in the Queen's birthday honours of 1999. But the Mirror claimed the exclusive story that Alex Ferguson was to get his knighthood after the Manchester United European Cup triumph that year. Tony Blair, it reported, 'has personally approved the top gong for
the Manchester United boss. . . It is thought that the Govan-born 58-year-old's knighthood will be formally announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours List on 12 June.' Further down the story, the paper claimed that 'Downing Street refused to be drawn on the knighthood'. The Mirror quoted a spokesman for No. 10 who declared 'we do not discuss any honours until they have been announced'.
It would be both rude and churlish to doubt Downing Street's word on this. But it is not unthinkable that it would be so discourteous to the monarch as to pre-empt a palace announcement. Downing Street, after all, informed the Sun of last year's election date before Tony Blair told the Queen. The advantage of leaking honours in advance is obvious enough. It is a pain-free way of helping newspapers and reporters you want to keep on your side — using the honours system as a form of Downing Street patronage of the press. And if No. 10 is to be ruled out, we are left with the problem of explaining the extraordinary number of leaked honours since 1997. The Daily Record's suggestion that Buckingham Palace has become leaky is doubtful. Besides, the royal correspondents have not been given the stories. It is the political reporters who have secured the scoops practically every time, and, in particular, correspondents noted for their close links to No. 10.
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