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Alan Bates, lead campaigner in the UK Post Office Horizon scandal, former prime minister Gordon Brown and business chiefs from HSBC and the London Stock Exchange have received awards in King Charles III’s second birthday honours list.
Bates, the named litigant in a landmark 2019 court case that was brought by 555 sub-postmasters and established accounting shortfalls alleged by the Post Office were based on faulty data, was knighted for services to justice.
HSBC chair Mark Tucker was knighted for services to the economy. The former chair of Prudential has steered Europe’s biggest bank since 2017, enduring a bruising battle with its largest shareholder, which wants to break up the lender.
LSE chief executive Julia Hoggett was made a dame for her contribution to the world of business and finance. The former financial regulator has spearheaded an industry push to revive the UK’s equity markets, which have suffered an outflow of investment and growing international competition.
Other executives recognised in this year’s list included Greg Jackson, founder and chief executive of Octopus Energy, and SSE boss Alistair Phillips-Davies. Both were given OBEs, alongside former Unilever chief Alan Jope.
Elsewhere in business John Burns, founder and non-executive chair of Derwent London, and Taylor Wimpey’s Jennie Daly, the first female chief executive of a big UK housebuilder, also became OBEs.
Jon Moulton, one of the UK’s best-known private equity investors, was made a CBE for charitable services. Claire Enders, founder of media research company Enders Analysis, and Michael Izza, former head of the ICAEW, became OBEs.
The Cabinet Office said 509 women had been recognised in the list this year, representing 48 per cent of the total. Just 10 per cent of the successful candidates have come from an ethnic minority background.
The King’s birthday honours list is vetted by committees made up of senior civil servants and independent members. This year, it named one Companion of Honour, of which there are only 65 main members at any one time — former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.
Since leaving Downing Street in 2010, Brown has led The Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown, an organisation that supports his “ongoing involvement in public life” and has donated more than £4mn to charitable groups.
In media, actor Imelda Staunton was made a dame, Armando Iannucci, creator of political satires The Thick of It and the Emmy award-winning Veep, was made a CBE, and broadcasting executive Alan Yentob received an OBE.
The former BBC creative director was forced to stand down in 2015 after the collapse of the charity Kids Company, whose board of trustees he chaired.
Among the more than 1,000 other people recognised in the list on Friday was the artist Tracey Emin, whose 1998 work “My Bed” caused a media storm. She became a dame for services to art.
The list also recognised a number of civil servants. Jim Harra, chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs, was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath alongside Peter Schofield, permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Schofield recently disclosed a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, saying he wanted employers to do more to help people with health conditions stay in work.
Antonia Romeo, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Justice since 2021 who has been touted as a potential future cabinet secretary, was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath.
