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Former Europe minister Sir David Lidington knighted

Former Minister for Europe Sir David Lidington was yesterday knighted by the Prince of Wales during a ceremony in Buckingham Palace.
Sir David was well known in Gibraltar, having visited on numerous occasions when he served as Europe Minister between 2010 and 2016, and had also visited in 2018, as the de-facto Deputy Prime Minister and justice minister.
Sir David received his knighthood yesterday after he was named in the Mrs May's resignation honours.
During her turbulent premiership, the former MP for Aylesbury was considered her de facto deputy and held influential roles in the cabinet, including minister of state for Europe, justice secretary and leader of the House of Commons.
Speaking after collecting his honour, he praised his former Prime Minister Theresa May as an "outstanding public servant".
"I think that she had a very difficult time as prime minister, because the controversies within her and my party and between political parties ran deep on the European issue," he told the PA news agency.
"Functioning in a parliament with a tiny minority or no majority is always difficult for any prime minister, but I think that historians will judge her as prime minister more kindly perhaps than some of the immediate comment has been."
Sir David said he is proudest of the "individual victories" he won for his constituents as he was given a knighthood.
When asked what he was most proud of over his 27-year career in Parliament, Sir David said it was the "individual victories" he achieved for his constituents as a local MP.
He said: "I know of people whose lives I was able to change for the better.
"Whether I was able to get people refunds from the tax man, or sort out housing problems, or education problems that had been dominating that man or woman's life for weeks or months.
"That does it give you a real sense of satisfaction."
Sir David added that he while he was proud of what he had achieved in government, much of his time was spent in "relationship management".
He said: "In Government, you work with others as a team, and often lots of compromise is involved and that's true even more so of diplomacy and in my years at the Foreign Office I found that out.
"Governments come, governments go, those of us who've had the privilege of serving in government are amazingly fortunate."
Sir David said it was awe-inspiring to be given the award and admitted he still felt nervous during the ceremony despite meeting Charles and attending the palace several times while in government.
During the Buckingham Palace ceremony, an orchestra played classical pieces as well as songs from Coldplay and the Disney movies Aladdin and Tangled.

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