New Year Honours 2019: South West Devon MP Gary Streeter knighted

MP Gary Streeter has been mentoring younger members of Parliament

MP and former Conservative minister Gary Streeter has said he was "shocked" to be awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours list.

The South West Devon MP first entered parliament in 1992 and served as a junior minister under Sir John Major.

Sir Gary said he was "deeply honoured" by the knighthood.

He added: "I want to dedicate the award to my wife and family for supporting me through the last quarter of a century at Westminster."

The former solicitor and Plymouth city councillor also said he hoped he was being recognised for his work as the chairman of the all-party group on Christians in Parliament.

Sir Gary said he had been doing "quite a lot of mentoring work with some of the younger members of Parliament".

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He added: "I think it is important that we try and nurture the next generation.

"After all, our democracy, if it's to survive, has got to attract good people and they've got to be trained up and pointed in the right direction."

He was a junior minister in the Lord Chancellor's Department in the final years of Sir John Major's administration before serving as William Hague's shadow international development secretary between 1998 and 2001.