Jeremy Irons has insisted he would decline a knighthood to stop the establishment from trying to pull him in as one of its own.

Irons, 67, began his distinguished career on stage in West End and Broadway productions before award-winning turns in films such as Dead Ringers and Reversal of Fortune.

But the actor told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme that he would refuse an invitation to the palace to accept a New Year honour should it ever arrive. “I became an actor to be a rogue and a vagabond so I don't think it would be apt for the establishment to pull me in as one of their own, for I ain’t,” he claimed.

If he did refuse, he would join figures such as the chef Nigella Lawson, the author Road Dahl, the poet Benjamin Zephaniah and the actress Helen Mirren in saying thanks, but no thanks. Zephaniah famously wrote an essay for The Guardian rejecting Tony Blair’s recommendation that his name be submitted for the honour’s list in 2003.

“Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought,” the poet wrote. “Stick it, Mr Blair - and Mrs Queen, stop going on about the empire. Let's do something else.”

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Irons was educated at a private school in Dorset and trained at the Bristol Old Vic. He touched on a debate over the number of high-profile actors who attended elite private schools and insisted that while he too was educated privately, he had paid his own way before making it as an actor.

“I worked in many other things when I was training, when I was starting out,” he said. “I was a builder, I was a social worker, I was a busker, I was a gardener, I was a house cleaner. All jobs which, I presume, are still available today if you want to have enough money to pay the rent for your bedsit while you are auditioning for things.”

His comments prompted some to reshare a quote from an interview with The Sunday Times highlighting the seven houses he owns.