Nearly half of prime honours go to individuals in London and South East | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Britain’s honours system has a “massive” bias in direction of London and South East with heroes throughout the nation not getting the accolades they deserve, based on former Home Secretary Lord Blunkett.

This massive beast of the Tony Blair governments claims there’s a “built-in class divide” which ends up in prime gongs going to individuals in well-paid and prestigious jobs.

Nearly half (48.9 per cent) of probably the most prestigious honours – CBEs and above – within the King’s Birthday Honours went to individuals primarily based in London (34.9 per cent) and the South East (14 per cent).

Lord Blunkett says the distribution of honours represents a “Britain of the past”.

None of the highest honours was recorded going to anybody within the North East. Just 1.6 per cent went to individuals within the West Midlands, with solely 2.3 per cent going to these primarily based within the East Midlands or the North West.

Famous names who have been honoured included former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Edinburgh) who was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour; there have been damehoods for Harry Potter star Imelda Staunton (London) and artist

Tracey Emin (London); and a knighhood for Alan Bates (Colwyn Bay), who fought for justice for the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

The Cabinet Office stresses that the information solely to the primary “prime minister’s list” and doesn’t embrace info from the “defence list” or the “overseas and international list”. But Lord Blunkett insists that main change is required.

He stated: “For some years now I have been tracking the geographic spread of both New Year and Birthday Honours, including the breakdown of the more prestigious category of honours. It has consistently revealed a massive in-built bias in favour of London and the South East, with the overwhelming number of recipients of CBE and above living in this most affluent part of the country.

“The critical category of those receiving awards for voluntary and community services, or going the extra mile beyond the workplace, shows a more even distribution but mainly for the award of MBE.

“There is, sadly, not only a mismatch, geographically, which does not accurately reflect the contribution being made by individuals across the country, but also a built-in class divide. The more prestigious the role of the individual, the wealthier or more professional employment, the higher the award.

“In a meritocracy, this must, over the years ahead, be corrected, as it reflects a Britain of the past, not the energised and more equal society I know we would all like to see.”

Carl Cullinane, a director of the Sutton Trust which campaigns for higher alternatives throughout society, stated: “Lord Blunkett’s comments tally with patterns we continue to see amongst the elite of society across a wide range of sectors. The honours system reflects the way the country is skewed regionally and in terms of social class in prestigious sectors such as law, finance and medicine.

“These often remain mostly London-centric career paths, that those from poorer backgrounds struggle to break into. It’s encouraging that 63 per cent of the new crop of MPs were educated at state schools, which is the highest proportion than ever recorded, but it’s important that we see a similar trend across the top of British society in the years to come.”

A Government spokeswoman stated: “We want to make the honours system more diverse and reflective of our society, and in the most recent King’s Birthday Honours, two thirds of the recipients were from outside London or the South East. Everyone is encouraged to nominate someone for an honour to celebrate achievements across the UK.”