Labour’s Emily Thornberry and mayor of London Sadiq Khan honoured in New Year list
A veteran Labour MP and the long-standing mayor of London are among a handful of politicians named in the King’s New Year Honours list.
Former shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry, who has been made a dame, appears on the list alongside Sadiq Khan, who has been made a knight after securing a record third term as mayor of London.
Former Conservative MP Ranil Jayawardena – who was environment secretary for a matter of days under Liz Truss – was also handed a knighthood, as was former schools’ minister Nick Gibb.
Mr Gibb served at the Department for Education under four Conservative prime ministers – Lord Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan at the opening of the £200m Siemens’ Rail Village in Goole. Pic:PA
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Dame Emily, who now chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told Sky News she was “surprised but delighted” by her appointment as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
She said: “I do think about my grandmothers, my English grandmother and my Irish grandmother, neither of whom were really even allowed to work once they got married. What they would make of this, I really don’t know.”
She added: “My husband was knighted a few years ago and I’ve never been comfortable calling myself lady Nugee, you know, using his title. So I’m pretty pleased to have my own title that I can use. I think Dame Emily’s alright.”
She also recounted telling drag queen Ella Vaday that she was “going to be a dame too”, to which her friend, who was appearing in a pantomime at the time, asked where on.
“Everywhere darling, everywhere!”, Dame Emily replied.
Andy Street, the former West Midlands mayor, was also made a knight after being defeated in his mayoral race in May.
Sir Andy, who was elected as the region’s first mayor in 2017, said he had only been “the front man” and the honour was “an accolade for the people in the West Midlands who made a success of the combined authority and the mayoralty”.
He said: “Behind it lies a huge endeavour to set this up from scratch and make it the success that it is.
“It was a huge honour to be able to do that on behalf of citizens across the West Midlands.”
The newly knighted Sir Sadiq said he was “truly humbled” by the honour.
He added: “I couldn’t have dreamed when growing up on a council estate in south London that I would one day be mayor of London.”
A Change.org petition to “stop” his knighthood, kicked off by Conservative London councillor Matthew Goodwin-Freeman, surpassed 200,000 signatures earlier this month.
Several former MPs also received honours in the list.
Former Labour MP Kate Hollern, who lost her Blackburn seat to independent candidate Adnan Hussain in July, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Lord Mike Katz, the national chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement who was recently ennobled by Sir Keir Starmer, has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
There were also gongs for Tamara Finkelstein, the permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and former leader of Welsh Labour and South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael.
Mr Michael was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), while Ms Finkelstein became a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said she is “rebuilding” the party as she marks her first year in the job.
Ms Badenoch also said she had spent the last 12 months “giving the country a serious alternative to Labour’s weakness: a plan for a stronger economy and stronger borders”.
The leader, who was elected on 2 November last year when she defeated Robert Jenrick, said on Sunday she was “rebuilding our party, our principles and our plan for Britain”.
She came to the helm after a leadership contest, triggered by Rishi Sunak’s resignation in the wake of the 2024 general election drubbing.
Pic: PA
But despite starting to craft a new Tory policy platform, she has been criticised by anonymous MPs who are disappointed the Conservatives do not appear to be cutting through with voters.
And she has seen some senior party figures defect to Reform UK, including ex-Conservative chairman Jake Berry, former Welsh secretary David Jones, and Tory MP Danny Kruger.
Ms Badenoch also continues to face the challenge of ambitious frontbenchers who appear to be plotting potential future leadership bids, including shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick.
Despite her insistence that the party is providing a credible alternative to the Labour government, the latest polling from YouGov suggested voters are yet to be convinced by Ms Badenoch, with just 12% believing she is a prime minister in waiting, while 62% do not.
But Ms Badenoch appeared adamant in her approach as she faced down the critics.
She said: “This first year of my leadership has been about rebuilding. Rebuilding our party, our principles and our plan for Britain.
“After defeat in 2024, we faced a choice: retreat into slogans, or rebuild around values. We chose to rebuild.
“The Conservative Party now stands once again for what made Britain strong in the first place – responsibility, fairness, competence and pride in our nation.”
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A majority of Conservative members, 54%, do believe she is doing a good job as party leader, while 24% say she has done a bad job, the YouGov survey found.
Pollsters have also suggested the Tories are less popular than the Liberal Democrats, as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK continues to lead with the public.
In May, the Conservatives suffered heavy defeats in the local elections, as Ms Badenoch apologised to her party over the result.
In October at her first Conservative party conference as leader, she made the surprise announcement the Tories would scrap stamp duty, a tax paid by house buyers, on the purchase of their main homes.
It gave the Conservatives and their leader a much-needed lift after what many have dubbed the lost year.
But backbench Tories could soon hold Ms Badenoch’s future in their hands, as a grace period stopping them from submitting letters expressing no confidence in her expires once her first year in office is complete.
Bob Blackman, who as chairman of the 1922 Committee acts as a conduit for Conservative backbenchers, said he believed Ms Badenoch’s slow and steady approach had been the correct one.
However, Labour said that “one year in, Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives have shown themselves incapable of change or learning lessons from the past”.
Party chairwoman Anna Turley said: “They crashed the economy, sent mortgages rocketing and left NHS waiting lists at record highs.”
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