James Bond Singer Bassey Joins Aviva Chief, Glastonbury Founder on UK Honours List
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(Bloomberg) -- Welsh singing legend Shirley Bassey and film director Ridley Scott were among the highest-profile recipients of awards in the UK’s New Year Honors list, which also recognized Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s favorite author and the chief executive officer of insurance giant Aviva Plc.
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Bassey, 86, who recorded the theme songs for the James Bond films Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker, was made a Companion of Honour, an award limited to 65 members at any one time, according to the honors list published late Friday. Scott, also 86 and whose films include Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire — the highest award for contributions to the arts, sciences, charitable work and public service.
The honors, awarded twice yearly, are given in the name of the monarch and recommended by a panel that considers suggestions from government departments and political parties as well as from members of the public. The full list published Friday covers the whole spectrum of British society, recognizing politicians, civil servants, academics and charity workers.
Separately, 10 Downing Street also published former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s resignation honors, conferring peerages on Matthew Elliott, the former chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum, Jon Moynihan, who chaired Vote Leave, and Ruth Porter, who served as deputy chief of staff to Truss during her disastrous 7-week tenure in 2022. There was also a damehood for the Member of Parliament Jackie Doyle-Price, a knighthood for Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke and lesser awards for the MPs Rob Butler and Suzanne Webb.
Business figures honored in the new year list include Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc and TalkTalk CEO Tristia Harrison, who both received damehoods. Knighthoods went to JD Wetherspoons Plc founder Tim Martin — a prominent pro-Brexit figure in the campaign to leave the European Union — and EasyJet Plc and Nordea Bank chair Stephen Hester, allowing them to use the title ‘Sir’. John Griffin, the founder of taxi firm Addison Lee, and Michael Eavis, founder of the Glastonbury music festival, were also knighted.
High on the list also was Jilly Cooper, the author of erotic novels known as “bonkbusters” in British parlance, who is made a dame. Sunak made the surprise revelation earlier this year that he had a weakness for her books, saying “you need to have escapism in your life.”
From the world of politics, there was a knighthood for former Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid, who has served in six Cabinet roles since entering Parliament in 2010. Sunak counted Javid as a political mentor and the two men’s resignations from the Cabinet in quick succession last year catalyzed Boris Johnson’s eventual downfall as prime minister.
Former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, the UK’s longest-serving female MP with 45 years in the House of Commons under her belt, was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire. Like Javid, she has said she plans to stand down at the next election. Long-serving Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh received a damehood, while there were lesser awards for her fellow lawmakers Yvonne Fovargue, Mark Garnier and Maggie Throup.
There was also a knighthood for the epidemiologist John Edmunds, who advised the government during the Covid-19 pandemic and became a familiar figure to British television and radio audiences.
Other notable recipients of awards include the UK’s former national security adviser, Stephen Lovegrove, Crawford Falconer, who helped lead Britain’s post-Brexit trade negotiations, and the academic Fiona Hill, a former adviser to Donald Trump’s US administration who is now chancellor of Durham University.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was also recognized, receiving the Royal Victorian Order, an award for services to the monarch, to mark his role in the coronation of King Charles III.
And in the world of sport, England women’s footballer Mary Earps and England cricketer Stuart Broad were among those honored.
(Adds sporting honors in new final paragraph. An earlier version corrected the reference to TalkTalk CEO Tristia Harrison.)
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