PADDY Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, enters the upper echelon of the honours system by becoming a Companion of Honour while Scottish Labour backbencher Anne McGuire is made a dame.
Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon in the West Country, who led his party from 1988 to 1999, receives his latest award for "public and political service".
The 73-year-old peer, who represented Yeovil in the Commons for 18 years, oversaw as leader the winning of 46 seats in the 1997 General Election, the party's best performance since the 1920s, and was a proponent of close co-operation with New Labour. He later became the UN's High Representative in Bosnia Herzegovina.
Fellow peer, Lord Young of Graffham, the former Trade Secretary in the Thatcher Government, also becomes a Companion of Honour for "public service". The 82-year-old businessman, who has held several company directorships, was in 2010 appointed the Prime Minister's enterprise advisor.
Later that year, the Tory peer apologised for saying the vast majority of people had "never had it so good ever since this recession - this so-called recession - started". He resigned but was later reappointed to his advisory role.
The CH order consists of the Queen together with no more than 65 Companions of Honour. Many of them are politicians such as Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, Lord Healey, the ex-Labour Chancellor, Lord Tebbit, the former Conservative Chairman, and Sir Menzies Campbell, another ex-leader of the Lib Dems. But there are others from a wide range of fields such as actresses Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, artist David Hockney and museum curator Sir Nicholas Serota.
Glasgow-born Dame Anne has represented Stirling as its Labour MP since 1997; she is due to stand down at the General Election. Her award is for "parliamentary and political services".
Currently, the Shadow Minister for Disabled People, the 65-year-old politician has held numerous frontbench Government roles, including as a Scotland Office Minister, a Work and Pensions Minister and a Government Whip. In his first year as party leader, she was Ed Miliband's parliamentary aide.
During her Commons career, Dame Anne has campaigned for the rights of disabled people and co-chairs the all-party parliamentary group on disability.
Other political awards include knighthoods for Paul Silk, who lately chaired the Commission on Devolution in Wales, and David Amess, the long-serving MP, who has been in the Commons for 31 years, first as MP for Basildon and now representing Southend West in Essex.
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