Former England manager Gareth Southgate, London mayor Sadiq Khan and actor Stephen Fry have been knighted in the New Year Honours.
Others who have received honours include a host of Team GB athletes – among them gold medal-winning runner Keely Hodgkinson – as well as author Jacqueline Wilson and television presenter Alan Titchmarsh.
Honours have also been awarded to some of the wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters following the Horizon scandal.
Sir Gareth, who has been knighted for services to association football, led the England team to the finals of the Euros in 2020 and 2024, as well as the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup.
However, the Three Lions did not manage to win any tournaments under his leadership, and he resigned following their 2-1 final defeat to Spain in July.
His knighthood matches that earned by Sir Bobby Robson, the last England manager to take a team to the World Cup semis. Fifty-four-year-old Southgate declined to comment on the honour.
Sir Stephen, best known for appearing in Blackadder and hosting quiz show QI, has been recognised for services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity.
The actor has been president of mental health charity Mind since 2011 and also supported the conservation group Fauna and Flora International.
Image: Stephen Fry has been knighted for services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity
He said he was “startled and enchanted” after receiving a letter informing him of the knighthood, adding: “When you are recognised it does make you feel a bit ‘crikey’, but I think the most emotional thing is that when I think of my childhood, and my dreadful unhappiness and misery and stupidity, and everything that led to so many failures as a child.
“And for my parents, really, what a disaster. I mean every time the phone rang, they thought, ‘Oh, God, what has Stephen done now’. It was a sort of joke in the family.”
London mayor Sir Sadiq has been honoured for political and public service, having held his role since 2016.
Image: London mayor Sadiq Khan said he was ‘humbled’. Pic: PA
He said he was “humbled” to have received a knighthood and “couldn’t have dreamed when growing up on a council estate in south London that I would one day be mayor of London“.
“It’s the honour of my life to serve the city I love and I will continue to build the fairer, safer, greener and more prosperous London that all of the capital’s communities deserve,” he said.
Conservative London councillor Matthew Goodwin-Freeman launched a petition to “stop” the knighthood which surpassed 200,000 signatures earlier this month.
Beloved author Jacqueline Wilson, who created the Tracy Beaker series, has been made a Dame Grand Cross (GBE) for services to literature.
Image: Jacqueline Wilson has been made a dame. Pic: PA
Actress Carey Mulligan and television presenter Alan Titchmarsh have become Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is made a Companion of Honour for services to literature, actor Eddie Marsan is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Myleene Klass becomes a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
A number of gongs also went to athletes following this year’s Paris Olympics, where Team GB won 65 medals, and the Paralympics, where Team ParalympicsGB finished in second place with 49 gold medals.
Twenty-two-year-old Keely Hodgkinson earned an MBE after claiming gold in the 800m at the Olympics, setting a new British record of one minute 54.61 seconds, making her the sixth fastest woman at the distance in history.
Image: Tom Pidcock crosses the line to win gold during the men’s cross-country mountain biking. Pic: PA
Other honoured gold-medallists include swimmer Duncan Scott (OBE), sailor Ellie Aldridge (MBE) and rowers Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott, Lauren Henry and Georgie Brayshaw (all MBEs).
Former F1 driver and broadcaster Martin Brundle has become an OBE and former Scotland and Liverpool footballer and BBC pundit Alan Hansen is an MBE.
Horizon IT scandal victims Lee Castleton, Jo Hamilton, Christopher Head and Seema Misra have been made OBEs for services to justice.
Politicians who received honours include Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who has become a dame, and former West Midlands mayor Andy Street, who has been knighted.
Image: Labour MP Emily Thornberry
The oldest person on the list is 103-year-old World War Two Mosquito pilot Colin Bell, who was given a British Empire Medal (BEM) for charitable fundraising and public speaking.
The youngest to receive honours are 18-year-olds Mikayla Beames, given a BEM for her fundraising efforts supporting children with cancer, and para-swimmer William Ellard, made an MBE after winning gold in the S14 200m freestyle at the Paris Paralympics.
More than 1,200 people from across the UK received honours in the latest list.
Southend Airport has been closed until further notice after a small plane crashed – as video footage emerged showing the aftermath of a huge fireball.
Images posted online showed large flames and a cloud of black smoke following the incident on Sunday afternoon.
Essex Police said it responded to “reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane” shortly before 4pm.
“We are working with all emergency services at the scene now and that work will be ongoing for several hours,” the statement said.
“We would please ask the public to avoid this area where possible while this work continues.”
Southend Airport said it would be “closed until further notice” due to the “serious incident”.
“We ask that any passengers due to travel (on Monday) via London Southend Airport contact their airline for information and advice,” it added.
Image: A huge fireball near the airport. Pic: Ben G
Zeusch Aviation, based at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands, confirmed its SUZ1 flight had been “involved in an accident” at the airport and its thoughts were with “everyone who has been affected”.
It has been reported that the plane involved in the incident is a Beech B200 Super King Air.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar, it took off at 3.48pm and was bound for Lelystad, a city in the Netherlands.
Pilots ‘waved’ to families watching planes
One man, who was at the airport with his wife and children, told Sky News the plane crashed within seconds of taking off.
John Johnson said the pilots “waved” at his family as they taxied the aircraft.
“We all waved [back] at them,” he continued. “They carried on taxiing to their take-off point and turned around.
“Then they throttled up the engines and passed by us. The aircraft took off and within a few seconds it had a steep bank angle to its left.”
The aircraft then “almost seemed to invert and unfortunately crashed,” he said. “There was a large fireball.”
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0:47
Smoke seen after small plane crashes
‘Airport was in lockdown’
Wren Stranix, 16, from Woodbridge in Suffolk, was in another aircraft waiting to take off for Newquay, Cornwall, with her family and boyfriend when the plane came down.
They watched from their aircraft as the emergency services arrived and were not able to leave their seats.
“The flight attendant didn’t know what was going on,” she told Sky News. “They said the plane had exploded and they didn’t know if it was safe or not. The airport was in lockdown.”
Image: Plumes of black smoke. Pic: UKNIP
They were eventually allowed back in the terminal to wait before all flights were cancelled.
Southend Airport said the incident involved “a general aviation aircraft”.
Image: A photo of the plane at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in September 2024. Pic: Pascal Weste
After the incident, EasyJet – one of just a few airlines that uses the airport – said all of its remaining flights to and from Southend had been “diverted to alternative airports or are no longer able to operate”.
The airline said it has contacted customers who were due to travel on Sunday. Anyone due to fly on Monday should check online for up-to-date information, it added.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said four crews, along with off-road vehicles, have attended the scene.
The East of England Ambulance Service said four ambulances, four hazardous area response team vehicles and an air ambulance had been sent to the incident.
Image: Fire engines at the airport
David Burton-Sampson, the MP for Southend West and Leigh, asked people to keep away from the area and “allow the emergency services to do their work” in a post on social media.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “monitoring the situation closely and receiving regular updates”.
Essex Police have set up a dedicated public portal and phone line where people can contact them about the crash at https://esxpol.uk/LIbaz and on 0800 0961011.
Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin said: “In these very early stages it is vital we gather the information we need, and continue supporting the people of Essex.”
He added: “We are working closely with all at the scene, as well as the Air Accident Investigation Branch, to establish what has happened today and why.”
An investigation into Gregg Wallace’s “inappropriate behaviour” on MasterChef has found that more than half of the allegations against him have been substantiated, including one of “unwanted physical contact”.
MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK shared a summary of its report into historical allegations of misconduct against the 60-year-old presenter, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin over seven months.
The report also said the number of sustained allegations made Wallace’s return to MasterChef “untenable”.
The investigation heard evidence from 78 witnesses, including 41 complainants.
There were 83 allegations against Wallace, and 45 of them were substantiated. All were related to MasterChef.
While the majority of the substantiated allegations related to inappropriate sexual language and humour, a smaller number of allegations of other inappropriate language and being in a state of undress were also substantiated.
One allegation of unwanted physical contact was substantiated.
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Nearly all the allegations against Wallace were related to behaviour which is said to have occurred between 2005 and 2018, with just one substantiated allegation taking place post-2018.
Additionally, the report summary found that there were also 10 standalone allegations about other people between 2012 and 2018/2019, two of which were substantiated. Those people were not named in the summary.
The investigation found that complaints had previously been raised with the production company between 2005 and 2024.
Image: Gregg Wallace on MasterChef. Pic: BBC/ Shine TV 2024
While the report flagged inadequate reporting procedures prior to 2016, when Endemol merged with Shine ahead of Banijay acquiring Endemol Shine in 2020, it said there were significant improvements to HR processes and training after 2016.
While the investigation said some formal action was taken by the BBC in 2017, it also noted the corporation held no information regarding concerns raised over Wallace centrally, resulting in issues being addressed as a first offence.
Sky News has tried to contact Gregg Wallace for contact today.
It was expected that the three-day state visit would take place in September after Mr Trump let slip earlier in April that he believed that was when his second “fest” was being planned for.
Windsor was also anticipated to be the location after the US president told reporters in the Oval Office that the letter from the King said Windsor would be the setting. Refurbishment works at Buckingham Palace also meant that Windsor was used last week for French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit.
This will be Mr Trump’s second state visit to the UK, an unprecedented gesture towards an American leader, having previously been invited to Buckingham Palace in 2019.
Image: Donald Trump and Melania Trump posing with Charles and Camilla in 2019. Pic: Reuters
He has also been to Windsor Castle before, in 2018, but despite the considerable military pageantry of the day, and some confusion around inspecting the guard, it was simply for tea with Queen Elizabeth II.
Further details of what will happen during the three-day visit in September will be announced in due course.
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On Friday, Sky News revealed it is now unlikely that the US president will address parliament, usually an honour given to visiting heads of state as part of their visit. Some MPs had raised significant concerns about him being given the privilege.
But the House of Commons will not be sitting at the time of Mr Trump’s visit as it will rise for party conference season on the 16 September, meaning the president will not be able to speak in parliament as President Macron did during his state visit this week. However, the House of Lords will be sitting.
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After reading it, Mr Trump said it was a “great, great honour”, adding “and that says at Windsor – that’s really something”.
Image: In February, Sir Keir Starmer revealed a letter from the King inviting Donald Trump to the UK. Pic: Reuters
In the letter, the King suggested they might meet at Balmoral or Dumfries House in Scotland first before the much grander state visit. However, it is understood that, although all options were explored, complexities in both the King and Mr Trump’s diaries meant it wasn’t possible.
This week, it emerged that Police Scotland are planning for a summer visit from the US president, which is likely to see him visit one or both of his golf clubs in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire, and require substantial policing resources and probably units to be called in from elsewhere in the UK.
Precedent for second-term US presidents, who have already made a state visit, is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.