Iraq's pioneering computer engineer among those knighted in New Year honours

Others honoured include London mayor Sadiq Khan, Labour MP Emily Thornberry and actor and writer Stephen Fry

Professor Sir Bashir Al-Hashimi has played a prominent role in the development of battery-free computing. Wikipedia

An Iraq-born computer engineer has been knighted in the New Year Honours list, appearing alongside London mayor Sadiq Khan, senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry and actor and writer Stephen Fry.

Professor Sir Bashir Al-Hashimi was recognised for services to engineering and education.

Born in Baghdad in 1961, Sir Bashir played a prominent role in the development of battery-free computing, including the Internet of Things. He previously received a CBE in 2018 for his services to engineering and industry, calling the recognition at the time an honour and testament to the efforts of the “great many colleagues” he had worked with over the years in an interview with The Muslim News.

In May 2023, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and was elected to the fellowship of the European Academy of Science and Arts. He previously received the Faraday Medal from the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology, and recently completed a three-year term as a Royal Academy of Engineering Board Trustee.

He is currently Vice President for Research and Innovation at King’s College London.

More than 1,200 people from across the UK received honours in the latest list. Women make up 49 per cent of those honoured, with 12 per cent of recipients from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Sir Sadiq, 54, was honoured for political and public service, having been the capital's Labour mayor since 2016. Born in Tooting, he worked as a human rights lawyer before entering Parliament as MP for his hometown in 2005, serving as a junior minister under Gordon Brown and then as shadow justice secretary under Ed Miliband.

Sadiq Khan, London's mayor since 2016, was honoured for political and public service. AFP

In 2016, he defeated Conservative Zac Goldsmith to succeed Boris Johnson as mayor of London, becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major western city and going on to win two further terms.

His tenure has at times proved controversial and a petition started by a Conservative councillor opposing his knighthood has had more than 200,000 signatures since December 5.

The London mayor has taken a firm stance on making London a greener and less polluted place to live, and his ultra low emission zone (Ulez) expansion has split opinion. He has also pledged to clean up the Thames, planning to make the river swimmable within 10 years.

Sir Sadiq has faced scrutiny over his record on law and order, having regularly clashed with the Conservative former government, criticising ministers over police funding and for failing to promptly ban zombie knives. However, he was accused of not taking knife crime “seriously” earlier this year by Kemi Badenoch, then a cabinet minister.

He has worked on improving London's transport, introducing names and colours for London Overground railway lines in November.

“I am truly humbled to have received a knighthood in the King's New Year Honours,” he said. “I couldn't have dreamt when growing up on a council estate in south London that I would one day be mayor of London.

“It's the honour of my life to serve the city I love and I will continue to build the fairer, safer, greener and more prosperous London that all of the capital's communities deserve.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy congratulated Sir Sadiq, saying the mayor had “delivered free school meals for London's kids, cleaned up the city's polluted air and built record numbers of council homes”.

“I'm so proud that Britain is a place where you can go from being the son of a bus driver on a council estate to being the first Muslim in Cabinet, mayor of our great capital city and a knight of the realm,” Mr Lammy added.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry said she was 'both honoured and surprised' by her appointment as a dame. Labour Friends of Israel

Senior Labour MP Ms Thornberry has been made a dame. She has served as MP for Islington South since 2005 and, after her surprise exclusion from Keir Starmer's first cabinet after the election, now chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

She said she was “both honoured and surprised” by her appointment. “I think of my grandmothers, neither of whom were even allowed to work as married women, and think how utterly delighted they'd be to see this,” she added.

Comedian, actor, writer and presenter Stephen Fry, 67, known for BBC comedy Blackadder and hosting quiz show QI, was recognised for services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity.

Since 2011, he has been president of mental health charity Mind and supported the conservation group Fauna and Flora International, of which the Prince of Wales is patron.

Sir Stephen said he felt “startled and enchanted” after receiving the letter informing him of the knighthood and that it was “wonderful” to see the charities get recognition.

“When you are recognised it does make you feel a bit 'crikey', but I think the most emotional thing is that when I think of my childhood, and my dreadful unhappiness and misery and stupidity, and everything that led to so many failures as a child,” he added.

“And for my parents, really, what a disaster. I mean every time the phone rang, they thought, 'Oh, God, what has Stephen done now.' It was a sort of joke in the family.”