The former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg is to receive a knighthood just months after losing his seat as an MP, according to reports.

The Liberal Democrat politician, who served as deputy prime minister in coalition with the Conservatives for five years, will be rewarded in the Queen’s list of New Year honours.

Clegg lost his seat in Sheffield Hallam at this year’s election to Labour’s Jared O’Mara but has continued to make political interventions opposing Brexit.

He will be given the honour for his time spent as a cabinet minister but his reward is still likely to be controversial with Brexit supporters because of his passionate opposition to leaving the EU, including writing a book called How to Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again).

The most prominent pro-Brexit campaigner, Nigel Farage, has not been given a peerage or knighthood despite calls from the right for him to be rewarded for his part in the successful campaign.

The Liberal Democrats declined to comment on speculation.

The honours list is a closely guarded secret until it is announced on New Year’s Eve but it tends to cause an annual outcry over rewards for prominent donors linked to political parties.

Theresa May previously pledged to shake up the system, saying in 2016 that she “retched” when she saw David Cameron’s resignation honours list, in an attack on a knighthood for his former spin doctor Sir Craig Oliver.

However, last year, David Ord, who gave the Tories £930,000, was knighted for “political service”, while Dominic Johnson, associate treasurer of the Conservative party and now a CBE, gave the Cameron family a place to stay when they left Downing Street in July 2016.