Rio Olympics 2016: Theresa May backs calls to honour our Team GB heroes and says there is no cap on the numbers allowed to be rewarded in the New Year’s list
The Prime Minister said the stunning success of our athletes at the Games should be ’recognised’
THERESA May backed calls to honour our Olympic heroes today by saying their stunning success at the Rio Games should be “recognised”.
The PM’s official spokeswoman said there was no cap on the number of people allowed to be rewarded in the New Year’s Honours List.
She added: “The honours should be about recognising and rewarding great achievements and by goodness we have had that in the last two weeks.”
The Sun has led the way in demanding Gongs for our medal winning heroes – from Mo Farah and Andy Murray to Alistair Brownlee and cycling sweethearts Jason Kenny and Laura Trott.
Downing Street today insisted Theresa May had been “taking great interest” in the Games from her holiday in Switzerland.
She lavished praise on Laura Trott, gymnast Amy Tinkler, the Brownless brothers and gymnast Max Whitlock when unveiling plans for a homecoming parade on Friday.
The PM’s official spokeswoman said: “The PM is extremely proud of all that we have achieved.
“In terms of honours there’s an independent process, there’s no formal cap on the number of honours that can be awarded.
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“I think there is guidance given by the Cabinet Office on ballpark figures that different sectors could expect, but where there a special circumstances and a particularly high number of deserving people the Committees and Government would look at that.
“The Honours should be about recognising and rewarding great achievements and by goodness we have had that in the last two weeks.”
After London 2012, the New Year’s Honours included a special list just for our Olympics heroes, which saw four knighthoods given out.
Ben Ainslie, Dave Brailsford, David Tanner and Bradley Wiggins all made a Sir, while Sarah Storey was made a Dame.
In addition there were five people made a CBE, including Jess Ennis and Mo Farah, while there were six OBEs handed out, and 62 MBEs.
A total of 1,223 were people recommended for an award, including 535 total MBEs and 247 OBEs.