Michael Gove was among top Tories to be handed gongs in Rishi Sunak's "rewards for failure" resignation honours list.

The divisive former Cabinet minister was given a peerage by the defeated ex-PM while Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, Grant Shapps, and Mel Stride were all awarded knighthoods. The list - branded an "ID parade of political flunkies" - comes less than a year after voters turfed the Conservatives out of office after 14 years of chaos.

A Labour source told The Mirror: "Rewarding failure is in the Tories' DNA. Surely it's only a matter of time before they reward Liz Truss for crashing the economy and sending mortgages spiralling given they still refuse to apologise for it."

Mr Gove, who was once spotted busting moves on the dancefloor of an Aberdeen nightclub in a suit, was a key member of the Tory psychodrama. He infamously ran in the 2016 Conservative leadership battle forcing his then-friend Boris Johnson to pull the plug on his first attempt to become Prime Minister.

He held a string of Cabinet posts under four Tory PMs, including a controversial four-year stint as Education Secretary where he mocked the education leaders as the "Blob". On Friday the leader of the National Education Union (NEU) branded Mr Gove's elevation to the House of Lords a "slap in the face".