Michael Dugher MP Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, responding to reports that two ministers sacked in the reshuffle will be knighted, said:  

“If these reports are true, it would show David Cameron undermining not just the honours system but women who have served in his Government. Dishing out hush-hush honours and gongs as golden goodbyes, just to keep his sacked ministers happy, also shows how weak Cameron is.

“In yesterday’s ‘reshuffle for women’ David Cameron missed his own target to make a third of his ministers female and promoted almost three times more men than women.

“Soon he will have sacked and knighted more men than he’s appointed women to the Cabinet.

"Is it any wonder his Government’s policies are letting women down? This patronage for the old boys’ club shows just how out of touch Cameron has become.”