[on turning down an MBE in 2016] 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. 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.
