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Theresa May risks a damaging new cronyism row after the MP who holds her survival in his hands won a knighthood.

Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee, will become Sir Graham in the New Year Honours just three months after throwing his weight behind the Prime Minister.

Knighthoods and damehoods also go to veteran Tory MPs Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Cheryl Gillan and Christopher Chope – all three of whom have held top posts in the backbenchers’ pressure group.

Mr Clifton-Brown is the 1922 Committee Treasurer, Ms Gillan is a Vice Chair and Mr Chope was a secretary until 2012.

Astonishingly a fifth of today’s knighthoods went to MPs, despite the Prime Minister trying to avoid a cronyism row like those that dogged David Cameron.

And a staggering 17 gongs went to current or former officials at the Home Office – Mrs May’s former department.

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SNP Cabinet Office spokesman Tommy Sheppard said public honours should recognise the "remarkable efforts and achievements" of people in communities which advance society.

He said: "There are many this year who can be rightly proud of the recognition their honour gives to their works.

"However, they should not be doled out political favours. Sadly, successive Westminster governments have risked demeaning the system by making obvious political appointments."

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Influential Mr Brady, the MP for Altrincham and Sale West since 1997, is responsible for announcing a Tory leadership contest if 15% of Conservative MPs ask him for one.

Yet despite a battle for Mrs May’s survival in September he urged her not to “cut and run”, saying: “At the moment we are solidly behind Theresa May.”

Also rewarded is Edward Timpson, an heir to his family’s key-cutting empire, who can console himself with a CBE after losing his Crewe and Nantwich seat to Labour by 48 votes in June.

The Tories’ former Lib Dem Coalition ally Nick Clegg has been knighted, angering UKIP supporters after Nigel Farage was snubbed again, while the Lib Dems’ new deputy leader Jo Swinson has been made a CBE.

Labour’s Mark Hendrick, who was the first ethnic minority UK MEP, will become a Sir as will Deputy Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle.

It is a bittersweet honour for popular Mr Hoyle, Labour MP for Chorley since 1997, coming just weeks after his 28-year-old daughter Natalie was found hanged.

Honours Committee chairman Sir Jonathan Stephens said the Prime Minister had asked his team to focus on giving gongs to local community heroes.

Mrs May “emphasised the importance of maintaining the integrity of the honours system”, he added.

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But alongside MPs were 12 local activists rewarded for “political service”, more than half of whom are from the Conservative Party.

And 17 honours were dished out to current or ex-officials at the Home Office – despite it failing disastrously to meet Mrs May’s migration target while she was in charge.

The total appears to be higher than for any Whitehall department except the Foreign Office, exceeding the 16 gongs for the Ministry of Defence.

Home Office recipients include its most senior civil servant Philip Rutnam, who becomes a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

His predecessor as permanent secretary Mark Sedwill, now the National Security Adviser, has been made a Knight Commander of St Michael and St George.

Eleven gongs also go to staff at the Department for Work and Pensions despite an outcry over the rollout of Universal Credit.

Another 11 have gone to mandarins at HM Revenue and Customs despite the government being accused of failing to catch enough tax avoiders.

Five gongs each go to staff at the Education and Business departments, two each to staff in culture, foreign aid, transport, trade and the Cabinet Office, and one each to the environment and justice departments.

(Image: PA)

(Image: PA)

Honours are assembled by independent committees but signed off by the Prime Minister before they are sent to the Queen for final approval.

Knighthoods also went to Anthony Habgood, chairman of the Court of the Bank of England, pollster Prof John Curtice, and former Home Office chief scientific advisor Prof Bernard Silverman.

NHS England’s chief financial officer Paul Baumann will be made a CBE for “services to NHS financial management” despite hospitals facing a cash crisis.

It is among a string of gongs that went to NHS managers, but frontline NHS staff including volunteers, nurses and surgeons were rewarded too.

Prof Hilary Chapman, chief nurse at Sheffield’s NHS hospitals, was handed a damehood as was former Royal College of Midwives chief executive Catherine Warwick.