Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.

Boris Johnson has handed his brother Jo, and several other allies, seats in the House of Lords.

Jo Johnson was on the list of new peerages nominated by the prime minister published on Friday.

It marks a swift return to parliament for the PM’s brother, who dramatically quit the Commons entirely last year in protest at Boris Johnson’s Brexit policy.

Jo Johnson campaigned for Remain in 2016 and was a public supporter of holding a second referendum.

Other names on the list of peerages include former England cricketer Sir Ian Botham, newspaper owner Evgeny Lebedev and the PM’s chief strategic adviser Sir Edward Lister.

Lord Fowler, the speaker of the House of Lords, said the appointment of 36 new peers was a “massive policy u-turn”,

“This list of new peers marks a lost opportunity to reduce numbers in the House of Lords. The result will be that the House will soon be nearly 830 strong – almost 200 greater than the House of Commons,” he said.

“It was only two years ago that the then prime minister, Mrs [Theresa] May, pledged herself to a policy of “restraint” in the number of new appointments. 

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has been made a peer, as have former chancellors Philip Hammond and Ken Clarke.

Nigel Dodds, the former deputy leader of the DUP, has been rewarded with a seat in the Lords.

Theresa May’s husband Philip has been handed a knighthood for “political service”.

Tony Woodley, the former general secretary of the Unite union, has been nominated for a peerage by Jeremy Corbyn.

In 2018 a spokesperson for Woodley said he was “not seeking nomination to the House of Lords” and media reports that he was were “wholly inaccurate”.

Former Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox is on the list of new peers, despite having previously said she did not “agree” with the Lords.