The New Year’s Honours list is out and has the usual handful of gongs for politicians; well-deserved awards handed out to people for basically just doing their jobs. The list in full:

Knighthoods:

• Mark Sedwell – for his career in public service spanning domestic and international policy across seven Prime Ministers.
• Alok Sharma MP – for his contribution to combatting climate change through his leadership at COP26 and driving the UK to agree a historic agreement from individual countries that will have a major impact in addressing climate change in the future.
• Richard Graham MP – For services to Trade and Investment in South-East Asia.
• Tom Scholar – Former Treasury Permanent Secretary, for public service
• John Benger – Clerk to the House of Commons, for services to Parliament
• Chris Bryant MP – For political and public service
• Julian Lewis MP – For political and public service
• Matthew Rycroft – Home Office permanent secretary, for services to British Diplomacy, Development and Domestic Policy.

Damehoods:

• Norma Redfearn CBE – Mayor of North Tyneside Council, for political and public service

CBEs:

• Fergus Cochrane – Clerk to the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament, for services to the Scottish Parliament
• Elinor Mitchell – Director of Economy, Scottish Government. For Political service during Covid-19
• Samuel Pollock OBE – For public service in Northern Ireland
• Frank Roy – Labour MP for Motherwell and Wishaw from 1997-2015, for political and public service
• Andrew Stephenson MP – For political and public service
• Fiona Tudor – Former Clerk of Committees in the House of Lords, for services to Parliament

OBEs:

• Helen Belcher – LibDem councillor and trustee of Trans Media Watch, for services to the Transgender community
• Peter Kellner – Founder of YouGov, for Charitable Services
• Andrew Colborne-Baber – Senior Volunteer for the Conservative Party and CCHQ Chairman of the Governance & Risk Committee, for Political service
• Jennet Davis MBE – Former senior advisor to the COP26 Cabinet Office unit, for political service
• James Gilbert – Former deputy director to the Scottish Government, for services to housing
• Helen Grant MP – For political and public service
• Richard Horton – Editor in Chief of The Lancet, for services to health and medical journalism
• Gotz Mohindra – Senior volunteer at the Conservative Party and Vice President of the National Convention, for political science
• Elinor Wakefield – Former deputy COP26 envoy at the COP26 unit in the Cabinet Office, for political service

MBEs:

• Catherine Belton – Journalist at the Washington Post
• Louise Davies – Former director of Christians on the Left, for political and charitable services
• Joanna Dodd – Former Clerk of Divisions, Elections and Supply in the House of Lords, for services to Parliament
• Margaret Joachim – Chair of the LibDems’ English Candidates Committee, for service to women in politics
• Susan Murphy – Mayor of St Helens Council, for public and political service
• Dewi Owens – For political and public service in North Wales
• Sheila Ritchie – For political service in Scotland
• Aurfron Roberts – Member of Rhondda council, for public and political service

Alok Sharma tells Times Radio…

“It was an emotional moment. I understood the disappointment. And six hours sleep in 3 days probably didn’t help”.