New Year’s Honors list includes vocal government criticism | New Year’s Awards

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Sir Michael Marmot, the world’s foremost expert on health inequalities, has been named a fellow honoree in the New Year honours, among a string of people to be honored despite their often outspoken criticism of ministers and government policy.

Marmot, who led a landmark inquiry into health inequalities in the UK and has since spoken out about the lack of action to address it, receives one of the most prestigious honors there is.

The Companion of Honor recognizes British or Commonwealth citizens for long-term prominence in the arts, sciences, medicine or government, and is limited to 65 people at a time.

Marmot, who heads the Institute for Health Equity at University College London, said as well as being delighted with the award, he felt the decision said something very good about Britain given of his regular criticisms of the government.

In a new condemnation of policies since 2010, Marmot said austerity was making the poor poorer and depriving those who needed services, dramatically increasing health inequalities.

The current cost of living crisis is, he said, a renewed challenge. We see it in the drama of public sector workers, after 12 years of pay cuts, striking for enough money to feed their children without resorting to food banks, Marmot said. The poor in Britain are poorer than in most European countries. A low wage policy for essential workers is not only bad for their health, it goes against the government’s wishes to grow the economy.

The two MPs knighted in the New Year honors proved equally troublesome for ministers.

Chris Bryant, the senior Labor MP who chairs the Commons standards committee, has been implicated at the center of a series of damaging government events, including the inquiries into former Tory cabinet minister Owen Paterson and Boris Johnson.

Bryant said he was very shocked, calling the news an honor for the entire committee. I was surprised. I have no idea how that happens, he told PA Media.

Julian Lewis, the Tory MP for New Forest East since 1997, humiliated Boris Johnson in July 2020 by becoming elected to head Parliament’s powerful Intelligence and Security Committee, averting a seam attempt by Johnson to install Chris Grayling, a loyalist.

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Johnson stripped Lewis of the Tory whip and he was forced to sit as an independent for six months.

Alok Sharma, a Conservative MP and former minister, has been knighted for his work as chair of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow. Andrew Stephenson, the MP who chaired the Conservative Party for two months under Boris Johnson, has received a CBE.

Among the awards for civil servants, Tom Scholar, who was ousted as a Treasury official by Liz Truss and her then Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is elevated to the Order of the Bath.

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