David Cameron has given knighthoods to three junior ministers who departed in last week's reshuffle, while making veteran frontbencher Ken Clarke a Companion of Honour.
The prime minister handed knighthood honours to Alan Duncan, a former development minister, Hugh Robertson, who left the Foreign Office, and Oliver Heald, previously solicitor general.
However, there was nothing for Dominic Grieve and Owen Paterson, the more senior sacked cabinet ministers. Ken Clarke, who has served on the frontbenches for 40 years and left his role as a cabinet minister without portfolio, was rewarded with the more exclusive Companion of Honour.
While Clarke will not be able to call himself "Sir", he will enter a small clique of people who can use the letters CH after their name. The order was founded by George V in 1917 to recognise services of national importance, made up of the sovereign, plus no more than 65 members. Past recipients have included painter Lucian Freud, Stephen Hawking, naturalist Sir David Attenborough, painter David Hockney, historian Dr Eric Hobsbawm, politicians Sir John Major and Lord Patten of Barnes, General John de Chastelain, dramatist Harold Pinter, conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, the Reverend Chad Varah, and scientist Prof Anthony Pawson.
Michael Dugher, a shadow Cabinet Office minister, accused Cameron of undermining the system by using "hush-hush honours and gongs as golden goodbyes".
The prime minister was also challenged over the issue at his weekly questions last week, when Jonathan Reynolds, a Labour MP, asked why he had now "given more knighthoods to the men he has sacked than he has given cabinet jobs to women".
The prime minister defended his decision, saying he would make no apology for "saying that in public life we should recognise public service, people who have worked hard, people who have contributed to our nation, contributed to our government".
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