Britain's honours 'refuseniks' revealed

4.00pm


LONDON - It is an exclusive club, whose members have one thing in common: they have all turned down an honour from the Queen.

Until now, only a few - most recently the poet Benjamin Zephaniah - have revealed their membership.

But yesterday, for the first time, a list of the people who have snubbed an appointment was published. And an impressive list it is, too.

From the film world there is Albert Finney, from literature JG Ballard. Popular music is represented by David Bowie, comedy by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders and art by Anish Kapoor.

They are among a total of 300 people who have rejected an honour in the last 60 years, according to leaked documents. The Cabinet Office confirmed yesterday that an internal investigation was underway into the source of the leak.

Some, such as sculptor Kapoor, who was made a CBE this year, and Helen Mirren, who became a Dame, refused lower-ranking honours earlier in their careers. Others were more consistent - the painter L.S. Lowry is said to have turned down five awards, including a knighthood, a CBE and an OBE.

Thirty-nine people are reported to have refused honours since Tony Blair became Prime Minister.

Ballard, offered a CBE for services to literature in this year's birthday honours, said this week he thought the system was exploited by politicians.

"I am opposed to the honours system," he said. "The whole thing is a preposterous charade."

The revelations will increase pressure to reform the honours system, which is due to come under the scrutiny of the House of Commons public administration committee in January. The committee is likely to call witnesses, including Zephaniah, who angrily rejected an Order of the British Empire last month because of its "legacy of colonialism".

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a columnist for the Independent who recently returned her MBE, will also testify.

Tony Wright MP, the committee's chairman, has suggested the reference to Britain's imperial past might be removed in any revamped honours system. "I personally feel that the Empire stuff is outdated," he said.

More than 1200 people are honoured each New Year, nearly 90 per cent of them with an OBE. People who have been nominated are notified by letter six weeks beforehand. An estimated two per cent of them do not accept the invitation.

The committee's investigation follows a confidential Downing Street review of the twice yearly awards which reported that the honours system risked losing the respect of the public because it was too secretive and favoured civil servants. Despite an avowed policy to "scrupulously observe equal opportunities" only 20 per cent of those who receive honours of CBE and above are women and fewer than four per cent are black or Asian. Twenty-nine per cent go to civil servants.

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman confirmed that an investigation was underway into how minutes of the main honours committee, chaired by the cabinet secretary, Sir Andrew Turnbull, were leaked to the press. They showed that tennis player Tim Henman was being considered for a honour to "add interest" to the New Years' list and that the scientist Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, had been turned down because his pro-vivisection beliefs might offend animal rights activists. The latest revelations would be considered as part of this "ongoing internal investigation", she added.

Around a fifth of those on the list of refuseniks leaked to the Sunday Times had already been honoured or subsequently accepted a nomination.

The documents do not give reasons for the refusal but are deemed highly confidential and not for release under the 30-year rule because they contain personal information on celebrities.

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said a refusal of an award did not necessarily mean someone would not be considered in the future. "It's decided on a case-by-case basis," she said. "But there's no point in offering someone an award if they are always rejecting it."


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