Category Archives: Honours system

Businessman who donated £5m to Tories gets knighthood

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Mohamed Mansour, a Conservative senior treasurer, is one of several surprise recipients of honours

A businessman and former Egyptian government minister who donated £5m to the Conservative party last year has unexpectedly been given a knighthood on the recommendation of Rishi Sunak.

Mohamed Mansour, a senior treasurer of the Conservative party for just over a year, was one of several surprise recipients of honours on Thursday, with the citation saying it was given for business, charity and political service.

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Major Tory donor among 13 new peers named in honours list

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Entrepreneur Stuart Marks reportedly featured on – but was removed from – Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list

A major donor to the Conservative party who reportedly featured on Boris Johnson’s original resignation honours list is among 13 new peers announced by the government on Friday evening, eight of them Conservatives.

Stuart Marks, a technology entrepreneur who has served as a senior treasurer for the Conservatives, has been given a life peerage, an official announcement said. He has personally donated £119,500 to the party and another £56,500 through his company.

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Australian of the Year 2024: pioneering melanoma researchers Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer named as winners

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The scientists are credited with saving thousands of lives with their work on skin cancer and called on advertising to stop ‘glamourising’ tanning

One of the pioneering melanoma researchers named Australian of the Year gave has given an emotionally charged speech about his own devastating cancer diagnosis and told the audience “I don’t want to die”.

Prof Richard Scolyer and his research partner Prof Georgina Long – who were presented with the Australian of the Year 2024 in Canberra on Thursday night – are credited with saving the lives of thousands of Australians whose diagnoses of skin cancer would once have proven fatal but are now largely curable.

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Post Office minister set to update MPs on Horizon scandal compensation and convictions – UK politics live

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Business minister Kevin Hollinrake to give statement on Horizon scandal and what the government plans to do

James Chapman, a former political editor of the Daily Mail who worked as special adviser for David Davis when he was Brexit secretary for about a year until he left convinced that Brexit was a terrible mistake, says he does not think the “back to square one” line really works as an attack line against Labour.

The trouble with Sunak’s latest slogan is that I suspect a large number of voters think Britain is so broken under the Tories that “going back to square one” sounds like a wholly positive idea

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Labour pledges to ‘clean up politics’ after outrage over Liz Truss honours list

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Shadow front bencher says Keir Starmer would not have resignation honours after ‘appalling spectacle’ of ex-prime minister ‘rewarding cronies’

Labour last night promised there would be no resignation honour’s list issued by Keir Starmer if he were to become prime minister, as outrage grew over the list of peerages, knighthoods and other rewards showered by Liz Truss on those associated with her disastrous 49 days in office.

Shadow leader of the House, Lucy Powell, told the Observer: “The appalling spectacle of Truss rewarding her cronies for helping her crash the economy and cause mortgage misery for millions demeans politics.

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Eleven peers have not sat in Lords for at least a year after failing to take oath to king

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Ex-supreme court president among those whose failure to take oath means they cannot sit or vote in second chamber

Lady Hale, the former president of the supreme court, is among 11 peers who appear to have neglected their duties in the House of Lords after failing to take an oath to King Charles – a requirement for them to perform any part of their constitutional role.

Among the other peers is Harry Carter (Lord Carter of Haslemere), a top lawyer working in Downing Street, who was appointed a peer by Theresa May nearly four years ago but has never taken part in the House of Lords.

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‘Bittersweet’: bereaved charity founder honoured in King’s birthday list

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Bullying campaigner and founder of UK buddy system for Ukrainian refugees also among hundreds recognised

Suzanne Richards lost her son Joel, 19, brother Adrian, 49, and father, Pat, 78, in the 2015 terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia. Her other son Owen, then 16, was also shot and injured by the gunmen but survived the attack in which 38 people were killed.

Their memories live on in the Smile for Joel charity, supporting families who are victims of homicide, which she and Owen run from her home in Wednesbury, West Midlands.

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Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Anna Wintour honoured in king’s birthday list

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Knighthood for late novelist Amis is dated 18 May as honours cannot be given posthumously

Two giants of the literary world, the novelists Ian McEwan and the late Martin Amis, are recognised in the king’s first official birthday honours along with the fashion colossus Dame Anna Wintour.

The Booker prize-winning McEwan, whose acclaimed titles include Amsterdam, On Chesil Beach and Atonement, becomes a companion of honour, the highest award for outstanding achievement, of which there are only 65 at any time.

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Boris Johnson formally quits as an MP, Treasury confirms, after day marked by war of words with Rishi Sunak – as it happened

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Boris Johnson accepts post of crown steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds after accusing PM of talking ‘rubbish’. This live blog is now closed

Full story: Boris Johnson formally steps down as MP

The EU has dashed UK hopes of an early review of the Brexit trade deal saying is unlikely to re-open talks until 2026.

European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, who leads for the EU on Brexit matters, said the deal was only in force for two years and it would be pointless re-opening it until its full potential was realised.

If the decision is just to simply go for more divergence … some of the fundamentals of the withdrawal agreement and the TCA would be thrown into the shredder.

Rishi secretly blocked the peerages for Nadine and others. He refused to ask for them to undergo basic checks that could have taken only a few weeks or even days. That is how he kept them off the list – without telling Boris Johnson.

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Barry Humphries honoured in king’s birthday list as prizes achieve gender parity in 50-year first

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The late performer was remembered for ‘eminent service to the arts’ and is one of six Australians to be made a Companion of the Order of Australia

The late Barry Humphries has been awarded the highest accolade in the king’s birthday honours list, as the prizes achieve gender parity for the first time in their five-decade history.

Humphries was one of six Australians to be made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), alongside the former premier of Western Australia Colin Barnett, Parkinson’s researcher Glenda Margaret Halliday and the former Labor minister Jenny Macklin.

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Boris Johnson’s hopes for a comeback must surely now be futile ones

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The ex-prime minister’s surprise resignation as an MP followed a collapse in his popularity that is likely to be terminal

When Boris Johnson sat down to draft his resignation statement after learning the privileges committee had concluded that he lied to MPs over Partygate, he was determined to leave his enemies – on both sides of the Commons – a clear message.

“It is very sad to be leaving parliament,” he wrote. “At least for now …” That he still harbours hopes of a comeback – despite the damage that he has done to his own reputation, the Conservative party brand and to the country more widely – should surprise nobody.

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Sunak approves Boris Johnson honours list including aides linked to Partygate

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PM gives green light to list that also includes knighthood for Jacob Rees-Mogg and damehood for Priti Patel

Rishi Sunak has been accused of allowing Boris Johnson to hand out rewards to those involved in the Partygate scandal, including more than 40 honours and peerages for his closest allies at the time.

The prime minister faced criticism for approving the list despite police looking at fresh potential evidence of rule-breaking in Downing Street and Chequers during lockdown, as well as an ongoing parliamentary inquiry into whether Johnson misled the Commons.

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Dame Priti and Sir ‘party Marty’: the allies and aides in Johnson’s honours list

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Ex-PM also awards knighthood to Jacob Rees-Mogg and OBE to head of parliament’s hair salon

Priti Patel, who was home secretary in Johnson’s cabinet and widely seen as a fierce ally of the former prime minister, has been made a dame commander.

Keen Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg has received a knighthood alongside Michael Fabricant who often went on the airwaves to defend Johnson during Partygate.

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Liz Truss criticised for ‘stunning lack of humility’ over reported peerage plans

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Ex-PM has reportedly nominated at least four new members of Lords despite only lasting 49 days in No 10

Liz Truss has been accused of showing a “stunning lack of humility” following reports that she plans in effect to create a peer for every 10 days she spent in office.

The former prime minister is reported to have nominated at least four new members of the House of Lords, despite being forced from office after only 49 days, following a disastrous mini-budget.

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Boris Johnson nominates Daily Mail chief Paul Dacre for peerage for second time

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Placing of media boss on resignation honours list despite previous rejection puts Rishi Sunak in difficult position

Boris Johnson has once again nominated Paul Dacre for a peerage as part of a pared-back resignation honours list despite the Daily Mail chief having previously been rejected by the appointments watchdog, the Guardian has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the list have said that Johnson has put forward Dacre’s name for a second time. He had been knocked back last autumn after reported doubts raised by the House of Lords appointments commission.

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Taryn Brumfitt: body image activist named 2023 Australian of the Year

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Adelaide writer and speaker directed Netflix documentary about women’s body loathing and her path to accepting her own skin

Taryn Brumfitt, a body image activist who directed a documentary about women’s body loathing and her path to accepting her own skin, has been named the 2023 Australian of the Year.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, made the announcement at a ceremony at the National Arboretum Canberra on Wednesday night.

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Australia Day 2023 honours for elder abuse law trailblazer, Indigenous activist and a fossil hunter

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Most of the 1,047 Australians honoured are not famous but many of them have changed lives, if not the country

Most of the 1,047 names on the 2023 Australia Day honours list are not as recognisable as Archie Roach, Norman Swan or David Wenham.

But many of them have changed lives, if not the country. Take the solicitor Rodney Lewis, appointed to the Order of Australia for his “life-long contribution to human rights and civil liberties both in Australia and more broadly across our region”.

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New year honours list includes outspoken critics of government

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Chris Bryant and Julian Lewis receive knighthoods while Michael Marmot gets Companion of Honour

Sir Michael Marmot, the world-leading expert on health inequalities, has been made a Companion of Honour in the new year honours, among a series of people to be rewarded despite their often outspoken criticism of ministers and government policy.

Marmot, who headed a landmark inquiry into UK health inequalities and has since been vocal about the lack of action to address them, receives one of the most prestigious honours in existence.

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Liz Truss aide Mark Fullbrook pushed for advisers to get honours

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Exclusive: chief of staff said to have wanted ex-PM to sign off resignation honours list featuring her advisers

Mark Fullbrook, Liz Truss’s chief of staff, pushed for many of her advisers to get resignation honours despite her government only being in place for seven weeks, according to multiple sources.

Fullbrook, whose tenure in No 10 has been overshadowed by questions over his private lobbying interests, is expected to depart along with Truss’s other advisers as Rishi Sunak takes her place.

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Victoria and George Cross recipients to take part in Queen’s funeral procession

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Seventeen of those awarded the honours will be in attendance, including one from New Zealand and four from Australia

Recipients of the highest honours that can be awarded to military personnel and civilians for services to their country are to take part in the procession at the Queen’s funeral.

Seventeen of the 23 recipients of the Victoria Cross for military valour and the George Cross for civilian gallantry will be in attendance at the service on Monday, including one from New Zealand and four from Australia.

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