RISHI SUNAK accused former PM Boris Johnson today of asking him to “do something I wasn’t prepared to do” amid a Tory civil war over his predecessor’s resignation honours list.

Mr Johnson and his allies have blamed Downing Street for Conservative MPs failing to appear on the list last Friday despite being nominated for the House of Lords.

Speaking for the first time since his predecessor quit Parliament, Mr Sunak said: “Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do because I didn’t think it was right.

“That was to either overrule the Holac (House of Lords appointments commission) committee or to make promises to people.

“Now, I wasn’t prepared to do that. I didn’t think it was right and if people don’t like that, then tough."

Mr Johnson resigned as MP on Saturday after receiving an advanced copy of the Commons partygate inquiry report on whether he deliberately misled Parliament over lockdown-breaching parties at his No 10 office.

His allies, the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and ex-minister Nigel Adams, then also quit Parliament after they were not included in the list of new peerages last Friday, leaving the Tories fighting a triple by-election.

Ms Dorries and Mr Adams were reportedly put forward by Mr Johnson for peerages alongside Cop26 president Sir Alok Sharma.

Government figures have insisted that neither Mr Sunak nor Downing Street removed names from Mr Johnson’s peerages submission.

Communities Secretary Michael Gove claimed that the “appropriate procedure” and the correct “precedent” was followed after Downing Street took the decision on Saturday to declassify Holac chairman Lord Bew’s approved names to Mr Sunak.

The letter, dated February 5, contains the seven peerages announced on Friday, along with a redacted name of a person who took the “personal decision to withdraw themselves.”

Holac has confirmed it did not support eight peerage nominees put forward by Mr Johnson.

The partygate inquiry, which Mr Johnson has accused of being a “witch-hunt,” concluded last night but is not expected to publish its findings until a later date.

Mr Gove said that any vote on the findings is a “matter for the House of Commons,” as he appeared to distance the government from any role in the response to the inquiry.

Today, Mr Johnson escalated the war of words, saying: “Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish.

“To honour these peerages it was not necessary to overrule Holac – but simply to ask them to renew their vetting, which was a mere formality.”