Knighthood for Whitehall bureaucrat Mark Lowcock who gave away £12bn in foreign aid

Mark Lowcock will likely be knighted within the New Yr's honours for 'public service'

The Whitehall mandarin who presides over the bloated international support price range is to be rewarded with a knighthood.

Mark Lowcock will likely be knighted within the New Yr's honours for 'public service', regardless of widespread anger over how the Division for Worldwide Growth spends its huge £12 billion price range.

The choice comes simply weeks after MPs criticised the £165,000-a-year bureaucrat for being 'evasive' over who took the disastrous resolution to construct a £285 million airport on the distant island of St Helena the place it's too windy for industrial planes to land.

Tory MP Philip Davies stated Mr Lowcock, 54, ought to be often called 'Sir Waste-a-Lot' after presiding over a division that had develop into a byword for inefficiency.

Key awards within the honours checklist embrace:

• Veteran comic Ken Dodd, 89, is knighted;
• Olympic stars Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katherine Grainger are made dames, whereas Mo Farah is knighted;
• Tennis champion Andy Murray, 29, turns into one in every of Britain's youngest knights;
• Fifteen gongs went to officers on the Residence Workplace, the place Theresa Might served for six years;
• Tory donor David Ord, who has given the get together £930,000, is knighted for 'political service';
• TV presenter and bowel most cancers survivor Lynn Faulds Wooden turned down an MBE, saying she couldn't settle for a gong 'whereas we nonetheless have get together donors donating big quantities of cash and getting an honour'.

MPs criticised the £165,000-a-year bureaucrat for being 'evasive' over who took the disastrous resolution to construct a £285 million airport (pictured) on the distant island of St Helena

Mo Farah (pictured on the Rio Olympics in August) has been awarded a knighthood within the New Yr's Honours checklist

Olympic stars Jessica Ennis-Hill (pictured in Rio in August after profitable silver within the girls's heptathalon) has been made a dame

On Twitter final evening, Mrs Might stated: 'Congratulations to all these receiving honours – it's nice that so many from totally different walks of life are recognised.'

However Mr Davies added of Mr Lowcock's gong: 'He definitely hasn't been knighted for providers to the UK taxpayer. If squandering billions of kilos on grasping consultants and corrupt nations, and having the best paid workers within the Civil Service will get you a knighthood today, then God assist us.

'It definitely detracts from the opposite very deserving folks on the checklist.'

Comic Ken Dodd, 89, has been knighted within the New Yr's Honours checklist

Crew GB rower Katherine Grainger, pictured holding a silver medal, her fifth medal at 5 Olympic Video games, has been made a dame

Whereas it's common for long-serving Whitehall mandarins to be handed honours, the timing of Mr Lowcock's knighthood seems set to revive anger over the international support price range.

He's an in depth good friend of Cupboard Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, and is alleged to have shared a flat with him after they had been beginning out within the Civil Service. He has spent his whole profession at Dfid and its predecessor division, racking up a £1.1 million pension pot within the course of.

For the previous 5 years he has been the division's everlasting secretary, accountable for overseeing the controversial goal of spending zero.7 per cent of Britain's earnings on international support.

Tv presenter Lynn Faulds Wooden turned down an MBE, saying she couldn't settle for a gong 'whereas we nonetheless have get together donors donating big quantities of cash and getting an honour'

Tory donor David Ord, who has given the get together £930,000, is knighted for 'political service'

Throughout this time, Britain has doled out greater than £60billion in support, with the price range rising from £7.7billion to an estimated £12.4billion this yr, at a time when different departments have confronted deep cuts.

In April this yr, Mr Lowcock boasted that the political debate on the worth of international support had been received. He added: 'More and more, folks don't wish to debate whether or not we must always do growth or not.

'What they wish to know is: are we spending the cash effectively and getting the correct outcomes from it? I fear a lot lower than I used to about having to make the case for growth.'

Tory MP Philip Davies stated Mr Lowcock, 54, ought to be often called 'Sir Waste-a-Lot'

However Tory MP Peter Bone stated many citizens nonetheless wished the controversial zero.7 per cent support goal scrapped.

He stated: 'The talk about abroad support is way from over, no matter Mr Lowcock may wish to suppose – it simply reveals how out of contact he's with the British folks. Lots of my constituents would reasonably see a proportion of that cash spent on social care, reasonably than handing it over to deprave regimes and losing it on ridiculous tasks. Simply doling cash out to satisfy a goal is the mistaken method.'

Earlier this month, Mr Lowcock got here below fireplace from MPs over the disastrous St Helena airport challenge. The Commons public accounts committee stated Dfid had made a sequence of 'staggering errors' which had 'unquestionably failed' the taxpayer.

Tory MP Peter Bone stated many citizens nonetheless wished the controversial zero.7 per cent support goal scrapped

Mr Lowcock instructed MPs he was unable to say who had made the important choices, main the committee to model his proof 'evasive'. Mr Lowcock was one a sequence of officers whose honours are more likely to increase eyebrows.

Different surprises included an MBE for 'providers to taxpayers' for Sarah Pearson, head of buyer providers on the private tax division of HM Income and Customs, which has confronted heavy criticism for its name dealing with in recent times.

One other shock was the award of a Queen's Police Medal to Scotland Yard Chief Supt Gordon Briggs, who oversaw the disastrous inquiries sparked by the cellphone hacking scandal, which had been branded a 'politically motivated witch-hunt'.

Honours to political cronies are additionally more likely to revive requires an overhaul of the system.

Lib Dem Shirley Williams, is among the many serving and former MPs to be recognised. She has been awarded a Companion of Honour

Assistant Tory treasurer Dominic Johnson acquired a CBE, simply months after he agreed to place up David Cameron and his household at his £four million dwelling in Chelsea after they left Downing Road. Alexandra Broadrick, chief of workers to controversial former Tory chairman Lord Feldman, acquired an MBE.

And there have been awards for serving and former MPs, together with Lib Dem Shirley Williams, who's made a Companion of Honour, and former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb, veteran Labour MP David Crausby and former Tory defence minister Julian Brazier, who're all knighted.

There was additionally a CBE for David Hodge, the Tory chief of Surrey Council, which is contemplating an enormous 16 per cent council tax rise subsequent yr.

Officers yesterday confused that lots of the nominees had been within the system since earlier than Mrs Might took workplace in July.

Mrs Might had requested for a change in emphasis to honour extra 'odd folks', which might be mirrored in future honours lists

Sir Jonathan Stephens, head of the primary honours committee, stated Mrs Might had requested for a change in emphasis to honour extra 'odd folks', which might be mirrored in future honours lists.

The Cupboard Workplace has criticised celebrities who revealed their inclusion on the honours checklist earlier than it was printed.

Victoria Beckham sparked controversy this week as she instructed her household about her OBE nomination over Christmas earlier than a supply near the household leaked the information.

Sir Jonathan stated: 'We all the time connect significance to sustaining confidentiality of the nominations.'

Tweet