Kenny Dalglish and Emma Thompson lead honours list as Mark Carne’s CBE condemned
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Richard Pallot
Liverpool football great Kenny Dalglish has been knighted and Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson made a dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours – while Network Rail boss Mark Carne has attracted criticism for his recognition.
Mr Carne received a CBE against a backdrop of huge disruption for train passengers in recent weeks, with politicians and rail groups describing the award as a “slap in the face” for commuters.
Labour MP Lisa Nandy called for his honour to be withdrawn, saying there was “absolutely no way that the Government should press ahead with this award”.
She told The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 that the decision was “just another kick in the teeth” for rail travellers.
“It’s the most astonishing thing to have happened in a week when commuters have been suffering from rail chaos”, she added.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the award “brought the honours system into disrepute”.
He told BBC’s Newsnight: “We have the most dysfunctional rail system in the western world, I would argue, certainly when it comes to local and commuter trains, so anybody amongst the rail industry leadership – whether it be Network Rail or the Department for Transport – to be given an honour of this kind…is an insult, a slap in the face to millions of travellers up and down the country who are suffering because of the failure of that leadership.”
The Department for Transport admitted the timing of the announcement of the outgoing chief executive’s award for services to the rail industry following timetabling issues was “unfortunate” but added that recent problems should not detract from his overall service.
Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy also defended his “tremendous contribution to our railways”.
He added: “It is right he is honoured just before he retires from one of the biggest and most challenging jobs in UK industry.”
But one union boss likened the timing of the honour to “rewarding the captain of the Titanic for jumping ship”.
Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, said: “Frustrated passengers will see no honour in that at all.”
And Emily Yates, of the Association of British Commuters, said: “It is a sign that the rail industry is badly out of touch with the real pain and suffering that people are going through – it is a pantomime.”
Meanwhile, also among the honours list in this 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage are remarkable females including a nun fighting modern slavery and a businesswoman who made her fortune in fake tan – although men outnumber women on the list.
As the NHS celebrates 70 years since its foundation, medics are recognised for their dedication, with health sector workers making up 12% of the 1,057 people honoured.
Dame Emma, 59, who is described in the official citation of the honours committee as one of the UK’s most versatile and celebrated actresses, receives her honour for services to drama.
The Remains Of The Day and Nanny McPhee star is joined on the list by fellow actor Tom Hardy, who is also recognised for services to drama, receiving a CBE, while Keira Knightley is made an OBE for services to drama and charity.
Sir Kenny, who managed Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough disaster and remained a steadfast support of the families in their lengthy quest for justice, said he was “hugely proud to have accepted the accolade” for services to football, charity and the City of Liverpool.
The 67-year-old Glaswegian and his wife Marina have also helped raise millions of pounds for cancer treatment through the Marina Dalglish Appeal after she successfully battled breast cancer.
Joking that he thought the letter informing him of the knighthood had been from the taxman, he added of the achievement: “We only set out to do the best we possibly could, even through all the other stuff – the charity or Hillsborough, it was to help people because somebody helped us.”
Following a wave of terror attacks which struck the UK in 2017, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley, who led the national response, is honoured with a knighthood.
On his retirement in March after 31 years in policing, Sir Mark was praised by Prime Minister Theresa May for his “dedication to protecting public safety and tackling the evils of terrorism”.
While there are no honours for local heroes involved in the response to the Grenfell Tower fire, the Cabinet has said it expects “acts of bravery and extraordinary community spirit” which emerged from the tragedy to feature on future lists, adding that its approach will be “time-appropriate”.
The brother of aid worker David Haines, who was murdered by Islamic State extremists, is made an OBE for his work against terrorism.
Mike Haines dedicated the honour, for voluntary service to tolerance and education in the UK and abroad, to his younger sibling, who was beheaded by Islamic State extremists in 2014 after being taken hostage in Syria.
Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, the boss of chemical company Ineos who this year topped the Sunday Times rich list with £21.05 billion, receives a knighthood for services to business and investment.
Sporting stars are well represented among the recipients, with Premier League and England striker Jermain Defoe describing himself as “blessed and humbled” to be recognised with an OBE for his services to the charitable foundation set up in his name.
The honour comes almost a year after the death of six-year-old football mascot Bradley Lowery, with whom the player struck up a strong friendship as the little boy battled a rare childhood cancer.
Defoe said it was the “proudest moment of my life” and added: “But it isn’t for me or about me. It’s for Bradley and those he loved.”
World heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua is made an OBE for services to sport, while 20-year-old alpine skier Menna Fitzpatrick, Britain’s most successful winter Paralympian, is the youngest on this year’s list, picking up an MBE for services to Paralympic sport.
In the musical world, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite is honoured with an MBE, under her real name Niomi McLean-Daley, for services to music, while Mobo Awards founder Kanya King receives a CBE for services to music and culture.
Japan-born Nobel prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, knighted for his services to literature, said he was “deeply touched to receive this honour from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy”.
Former Second World War nurse Rosemary Powell, who at 103 is the oldest on the list, is made an MBE for voluntary service to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, having spent 97 years collecting for the charity.
Renowned war correspondent Kate Adie is made a CBE for services to media, while Stacey Dooley, known for her BBC Three investigative series covering topics ranging from the fight against Isis to the abortion debate, receives an MBE for services to broadcasting.
Among the politicians honoured are Conservative MPs Eleanor Laing and Bernard Jenkin, awarded a damehood and a knighthood respectively for their political and public service, while Labour’s Louise Ellman has also been made a dame for parliamentary and political services.
Holocaust survivor Ber Helfgott, also known as Ben, is knighted for services to Holocaust remembrance and education, one of nearly three-quarters of those on the honours list deemed to have undertaken outstanding work in or for their local community.
In healthcare, Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England Professor Susan Hill is made a dame for services to the 100,000 Genome Project and to NHS Genomic Medicine, while surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram is awarded a BEM for services to surgery and innovation, having co-founded a company pioneering virtual access to surgery for people in remote areas.
Veronica Donovan, a consultant midwife at Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, is made an OBE for services to midwifery, while palliative cancer care specialist Debra Smith receives a BEM for services to nursing.
In the business sphere, Judy Naake, who made millions selling St Tropez self-tanning products, initially from the back of her car, receives an MBE for services to entrepreneurship, the community and philanthropy.
Jo Malone, creator of the self-titled luxury perfumery brand who has since started the fragrance-centred Jo Loves business, is awarded a CBE for services to the British economy and the GREAT Britain campaign, which encourages people to visit and invest in the UK.
Sister Imelda Poole, president of European anti-trafficking network Renate, receives an MBE for services to combating modern slavery.
Howard Tucker is awarded a CBE for services to international justice for his past work as a member of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
A former policeman in South Wales, he went to work in Bosnia to help bring people to trial for war crimes committed during the conflicts there in the 1990s.
Of the total number recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year, 210 have been made an OBE, 392 an MBE, and 318 awarded a BEM.
Forty-nine percent of the honourees are women, while 10% of all those on the list are from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.