Former prime minister Gordon Brown has said he feels “slightly embarrassed” to receive an award in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Mr Brown has been made a Companion of Honour, a special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine or government lasting over a long period of time.
There are 65 members at any one time.
Mr Brown told the PA news agency: “I feel slightly embarrassed as the opportunity to serve is an honour in itself and my preference has always been to recognise all those brilliant, unsung, local heroes who quietly and selflessly give their time to contribute to the vitality of our communities.
“I want to thank those who put my name forward and thank too my family and all who have worked with me during the last 50 years in public life to whom I owe everything.”
Mr Brown was Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, having been Chancellor under Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007.
He was MP for Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2005, and Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2005 to 2015.
He studied history at the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career as a lecturer at a further education college, and as a television journalist.
He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1983 general election as the MP for Dunfermline East, joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as shadow secretary of state for trade, and was promoted to shadow chancellor in 1992.
Following Labour’s victory in the 1997 general election, Mr Brown was appointed as Chancellor, when he undertook a major reform of Britain’s monetary and fiscal policy, transferring interest rate setting to the Bank of England.
During his time as Prime Minister he oversaw changes such as the introduction of neighbourhood policing in every area, a legally enforceable right to early cancer screening and treatment, and the world’s first Climate Change Act, which was implemented in autumn 2008.
The greatest challenge he faced in office was the worldwide financial crisis and the following recession.
In April 2009, he hosted the G20 Summit in London where world leaders pledged to make an additional 1.1 trillion dollars available to help the world economy through the crisis and restore credit, growth and jobs.
In recent years he has campaigned on a number of social issues, including child poverty, which he has described as a crisis.
He co-authored a pamphlet demanding a multibillion-pound package to tackle child poverty, saying: “It is the social crisis, and I don’t think people have woken up to the scale of poverty that is affecting children.”
Mr Brown has highlighted the millions of children born after 2010 who he said were living in poverty and whose development he believes have been affected by the austerity policies of Conservative-led governments.
He has recently called for an expanded Sure Start programme in partnership with foundations and corporate investors, and support for unemployed and low-paid people to find higher-paid jobs.
