Television presenter and cancer campaigner Lynn Faulds Wood has said she turned down an MBE because the honours system is unfair and should be overhauled to drag the country "into the 21st century".

The former face of BBC's Watchdog programme said she does not know who sponsored her for inclusion on the New Year Honours list for her work in consumer safety but she would have been a "hypocrite" to accept it.

The 68-year-old told the Press Association: "I would love to have an honour if it didn't have the word 'empire' on the end of it. We don't have an empire, in my opinion.

"I think honours are really important (and) should be given to people who have done really good stuff.

"And I've changed laws and I've helped saved a lot of people's lives, so maybe I'm deserving of an honour, but I just wouldn't accept it while we still have party donors donating huge amounts of money and getting an honour."

She said she would like to see an "appraisal" of the honours system, adding: "Let's drag us into the 21st century."

The health campaigner's comments come after she chaired a government independent review into the UK's system for the recall of dangerous products - an effort she fears has now been "kicked into the long grass".

While she does not know who put her forward for the award, Ms Faulds Wood said she believed it was directly related to her clear disappointment that "nothing has happened" as a result of the review, which was published in February.

She said: "We're a very backward-looking country at the moment. We shouldn't have lords and ladies and sirs. We should give people honours, yes, because plenty of people deserve them, including, I hope, myself.

"But it's not a fair system."

Ms Faulds Wood was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer while a presenter on Watchdog and subsequently devoted herself to work about the illness, including by making a TV investigation called Bobby Moore & Me.