Former Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt becomes a dame
Penny Mordaunt said it was 'lovely to be appreciated in this way' and she was 'feeling very grateful'.
Her profile was boosted by her sword-carrying role as Lord President of the Council during the 2023 coronation ceremony.
Dressed in a custom-made teal outfit with matching cape, and headband with gold feather embroidery, as Lord President of the Council she was responsible for bearing the Sword of State and presenting the Jewelled Sword of Offering to the King, the first time the duty had been carried out by a woman.
Dame Penny told the PA news agency: 'It is lovely to be appreciated in this way, and I'm very conscious that everything I have ever got done has been with the help and efforts of others.
'So I'm feeling very grateful on many counts today.'
The former defence secretary and Commons leader was widely seen as a potential Tory leader until she lost her seat at last year's general election.
In Westminster she had twice challenged for the Conservative leadership, losing to Liz Truss and then pulling out of the race against Rishi Sunak, but her hopes of making it third time lucky were dashed when she lost her Portsmouth North seat.
But she still harbours hopes of staging a political comeback by returning to the Commons.
Sir Mark Tami, who has served as a Labour whip since 2010, has also been awarded a knighthood.
The MP for Alyn and Deeside told the PA news agency that it is a 'great, great honour'.
'When I was told I was shocked,' he said.
'I think most people probably are. It's a great great honour and I'm very very pleased.'
Meanwhile, Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah becomes a dame, and told PA she was 'totally overwhelmed and surprised' when she found out.
'I grew up on a council estate in Newcastle in a one-parent family,' Dame Chi said.
'I never thought about being made a dame, as you can imagine.'
She said she would be 'really proud' to accept it 'on behalf of my constituents'.
Other Westminster figures given honours include Sir Philip Barton, the former top civil servant at the Foreign Office, who becomes a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George.
He was heavily criticised for failing to return from holiday while Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, as MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee said they had lost confidence in him and suggested he should consider his position.
But he remained in post as permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office until standing down in January this year.
Former Conservative health minister Maria Caulfield becomes a CBE and said she was 'really surprised'.
She told the PA news agency that she has returned to work as a nurse since losing her Lewes seat at last year's general election, and 'when I read the letter I couldn't have been more surprised'.
She added: 'It's nearly a year since the general election so I'd kind of forgotten really about politics and that side of things.'
She said that she was 'really lucky' to have been able to focus on women's health during her time as a minister and was now doing 'gynae cancer research […] doing the hands-on work rather than the policy work'.
Among the changes brought in while Ms Caulfield was in office was the introduction of the baby-loss certificate and the HRT prescription prepayment certificate.
'It's really nice to see that's being recognised and the team that helped us achieve all of that are to thank for a lot of that hard work,' she said
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Argus
33 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Rantzen warns peers not to hamper progress of assisted dying law
The Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill cleared the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday, but opponents have vowed to continue their resistance in the unelected chamber. The legislation could face a difficult passage through the Lords, with critics poised to table amendments to add further restrictions and safeguards to the Bill. Dame Esther told BBC Radio 4's Today: 'I don't need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job. They know it very well, and they know that laws are produced by the elected chamber. 'Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose. 'So yes, people who are adamantly opposed to this bill, and they have a perfect right to oppose it, will try and stop it going through the Lords, but the Lords themselves, their duty is to make sure that law is actually created by the elected chamber, which is the House of Commons who have voted this through.' Dame Esther, who turns 85 on Sunday and has terminal cancer, acknowledged the legislation would probably not become law in time for her to use it and she would have to 'buzz of to Zurich' to use the Dignitas clinic. Paralympian and crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast: 'We're getting ready for it to come to the Lord's and from my personal point of view, about amending it to make it stronger. 'We've been told it's the strongest Bill in the world, but to be honest, it's not very high bar for other legislation. 'So I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in.' Conservative peer and disability rights campaigner Lord Shinkwin said the narrow Commons majority underlined the need for peers to take a close look at the legislation. He told Today 'I think the House of Lords has a duty to expose and to subject this Bill to forensic scrutiny' but 'I don't think it's a question of blocking it so much as performing our duty as a revising chamber'. He added: 'The margin yesterday was so close that many MPs would appreciate the opportunity to look at this again in respect of safeguards as they relate to those who feel vulnerable, whether that's disabled people or older people.' Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who steered the Bill through the Commons, told the PA news agency she hoped peers would not seek to derail the legislation, which could run out of parliamentary time if it is held up in the Lords. She said: 'I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue.' A group of 27 Labour MPs who voted against the legislation said: 'We were elected to represent both of those groups and are still deeply concerned about the risks in this Bill of coercion of the old and discrimination against the disabled, people with anorexia and black, Asian and minority ethnic people, who we know do not receive equitable health care. 'As the Bill moves to the House of Lords it must receive the scrutiny that it needs. Not about the principles of assisted dying but its application in this deeply flawed Bill.' Meanwhile, one of the leading opponents of the Bill, Conservative Danny Kruger, said 'these are apocalyptic times'. In a series of tweets on Friday night, the East Wiltshire MP – who is at odds with his mother, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith in her support for legalisation – accused assisted dying campaigners of being 'militant anti-Christians' who had failed to 'engage with the detail of the Bill'.
Glasgow Times
33 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Rantzen warns peers not to hamper progress of assisted dying law
The Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill cleared the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday, but opponents have vowed to continue their resistance in the unelected chamber. The legislation could face a difficult passage through the Lords, with critics poised to table amendments to add further restrictions and safeguards to the Bill. Dame Esther told BBC Radio 4's Today: 'I don't need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job. They know it very well, and they know that laws are produced by the elected chamber. 'Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose. 'So yes, people who are adamantly opposed to this bill, and they have a perfect right to oppose it, will try and stop it going through the Lords, but the Lords themselves, their duty is to make sure that law is actually created by the elected chamber, which is the House of Commons who have voted this through.' Dame Esther, who turns 85 on Sunday and has terminal cancer, acknowledged the legislation would probably not become law in time for her to use it and she would have to 'buzz of to Zurich' to use the Dignitas clinic. Paralympian and crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast: 'We're getting ready for it to come to the Lord's and from my personal point of view, about amending it to make it stronger. 'We've been told it's the strongest Bill in the world, but to be honest, it's not very high bar for other legislation. 'So I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in.' Conservative peer and disability rights campaigner Lord Shinkwin said the narrow Commons majority underlined the need for peers to take a close look at the legislation. He told Today 'I think the House of Lords has a duty to expose and to subject this Bill to forensic scrutiny' but 'I don't think it's a question of blocking it so much as performing our duty as a revising chamber'. He added: 'The margin yesterday was so close that many MPs would appreciate the opportunity to look at this again in respect of safeguards as they relate to those who feel vulnerable, whether that's disabled people or older people.' Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who steered the Bill through the Commons, told the PA news agency she hoped peers would not seek to derail the legislation, which could run out of parliamentary time if it is held up in the Lords. She said: 'I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue.' A group of 27 Labour MPs who voted against the legislation said: 'We were elected to represent both of those groups and are still deeply concerned about the risks in this Bill of coercion of the old and discrimination against the disabled, people with anorexia and black, Asian and minority ethnic people, who we know do not receive equitable health care. 'As the Bill moves to the House of Lords it must receive the scrutiny that it needs. Not about the principles of assisted dying but its application in this deeply flawed Bill.' Meanwhile, one of the leading opponents of the Bill, Conservative Danny Kruger, said 'these are apocalyptic times'. In a series of tweets on Friday night, the East Wiltshire MP – who is at odds with his mother, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith in her support for legalisation – accused assisted dying campaigners of being 'militant anti-Christians' who had failed to 'engage with the detail of the Bill'.
The National
42 minutes ago
- The National
Presiding Officer to step down at Holyrood 2026 election
Alison Johnstone has been in the role since 2021 and was the sixth person – and only the second woman – to hold the position. She entered politics in 2007 when she was elected as a Scottish Greens councillor in Edinburgh. READ MORE: Kate Forbes: Numbers prove that the world is ignoring those who talk Scotland down She was then elected as an MSP in 2011, and 10 years later became the first Scottish Greens party member to take up the role of Presiding Officer. Alison Johnstone (Image: PA) Announcing her decision to step down, Johnstone told The Times that "it was always my intention that this would be my last term in Holyrood". 'I came from a wholly non-political background and got involved in a campaign to save a school playing field," she said. 'I was not in a political party but campaigned for the creation of a Scottish parliament and I then worked as an assistant for Robin Harper, the first-ever Green parliamentarian in the UK elected to the first-ever Scottish parliament.' Most recently, Johnstone made headlines after she expelled former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross from the debating chamber after he refused to follow rules. Ross tried to bring the matter up a week later, and was slapped down again after he inferred Johnstone had not acted in a "neutral manner". READ MORE: UK Government 'set to proscribe Palestine Action after RAF protest' Holyrood's Presiding Officer is impartial – when MSPs take up the role, they give up their party affiliation. They are responsible for chairing meetings in the debating chamber, selecting which questions will be asked at First Minister's Questions, as well as chairing Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and Parliamentary Bureau meetings. The Presiding Officer is supported by two deputies – currently Annabelle Ewing (SNP) and Liam McArthur (LibDem). According to the Scottish Parliament website, the Presiding Officer receives a salary of £130,500.
