Ukip’s only MP has been confronted over whether he blocked a knighthood for his former leader Nigel Farage.
On the BBC’s flagship politics show Question Time, Douglas Carswell dismissed the claim put to him by journalist Isabel Oakeshott.
Quizzing the MP about his well-known “feud” with Farage, she said:
“I personally believe he should have got a knighthood. He was certainly put forward for a knighthood, and it appeared it was all going swimmingly until you were to give your endorsement to that and you failed to do so.”
Carswell replied:
“That’s simply not the case. I would love it if I had the power to give knighthoods.”
When pressed over being asked for backing or feedback, he replied: “Absolutely not at all.”
Farage and Carswell have bickered since not long after the Clacton MP defected from the Tories in 2015. Among other issues, they fell out over Farage’s comments over migrants with HIV abusing the NHS, and they fought on separate Brexit campaigns.
While 2016 was a seismic year for British politics, none of the prominent figures involved in the successful campaign to quit the European Union were included on the New Year’s Honours List.
Some 14 people received awards for political service out of 1,197 who received recognition from all walks of life - but there was nothing for Farage, official Leave campaign chairman Michael Gove or any of the Tory backbench ‘awkward squad’ that for years have pushed for Brexit.
In January, Ukip leader Paul Nuttall said Farage should be given a knighthood for his role in Brexit.
He said party’s members of the House of Lords had written to the honours committee to suggest Mr Farage be recognised for his part in securing the referendum on Brexit and his “very substantial” contribution to the result.
The letter also highlighted Mr Farage’s status as a “figure of international significance” due to his “good personal relationship” with US President-elect Donald Trump.
The Ukip letter argues that a knighthood for Mr Farage would be “in the national interest”.
Guests on Question Time, presented by David Dimbleby, were Conservative cabinet minister Justine Greening, Labour MP Angela Rayner, Ukip’s Douglas Carswell, Peter Coates, chairman of Stoke City Football Club, and journalist Isabel Oakeshott.