Three Brexiteer MPs have been knighted in the New Year’s honours list, despite Nigel Farage’s claim his support for Brexit is why he has received nothing.
Graham Brady, Christopher Chope and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown were among the five MPs knighted in the list, unveiled on Friday evening.
Brady chairs the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers at a time when the hung parliament has hugely bolstered their influence over Theresa May’s Government, which must fight for each vote in the Commons.
After news leaked that ex-Lib Dem leader and arch Remainer Nick Clegg was to be knighted, Farage claimed he had not received any honours because he was ”not a Remainer”.
He told The Telegraph: “Every one of them got CBEs, they got knighthoods, quite extraordinary.”
But Brady is a vocal Brexiteer, who was among Tory MPs to declare he would campaign to leave before David Cameron returned from Brussels with his renegotiation package.
“There is a very long-term problem that there is a massive difference between what Britain thought it was joining – the European Economic Community – and what it actually was joining,” Brady told The New Statesman before the referendum campaign began.
Chope and Clifton-Brown both also backed Brexit.
MPs Mark Hendrick, who backed Remain, and Lindsay Hoyle, whose position as deputy speaker prevented him explicitly taking sides in the referendum, are also knighted.
Pollster John Curtice, whose shock exit poll on election night proved largely accurate despite initial claims it was wrong, is also knighted.
Outside politics, former Beatle Ringo Starr, ex Bee Gee Barry Gibb and author Michael Morpurgo are knighted.
Author Jilly Cooper, actor Hugh Laurie and former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman are all made a CBE.
Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg and author Antonia Fraser are made Companions Of Honour.
A total of 49% of the recipients on this list are women: 551 out of 1,123. A total of 9.2% are BAME and 5% are disabled.
You can find the full honours list here.