Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre is set to be handed a seat in the House of Lords, it has been reported.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Dacre is one of 15 Tory political peerages due to be announced in the coming days.
The 73-year-old currently serves as editor-in-chief of DMG Media, the publisher of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, the Metro and the i paper.
He had been lined up by Boris Johnson’s government to run media regulator Ofcom, but dropped out following reports about the process.
Businessman and Tory donor Sir Michael Hintze is also said to be due for a peerage.
Former Conservative MPs Stewart Jackson, Hugo Swire, Angie Bray, Graham Evans, Nicholas Soames are on the list.
Andrew Roberts, the historian, and Tony Sewell, author of the controversial race and ethnic disparities commission report, could join them.
The Daily Telegraph also reports former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson and from Labour MP Ruth Smeeth will be elevated to the Lords.
Arlene Foster, the former first minister of Northern Ireland, is also among the names.
The report that Dacre is heading for the Lords comes as as Prince Harry, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Elton John announced they were among six people suing the publisher of The Daily Mail over alleged unlawful information-gathering.
The publisher hit back at the allegations, describing them as “preposterous smears” and a “pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone hacking scandal”.
