Hillsborough Campaigner's Honour 'An Apology'

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By Jason Farrell, Senior Politics Correspondent

A Hillsborough campaigner honoured in the New Year's Day list has told Sky News she believes the award is part of an apology from the establishment.

Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, described her CBE as "bitter sweet" and said she had doubts about accepting it.

Mrs Aspinall, who lost her son James, 18, in the tragedy, said she consulted a survivor about the award.

"I needed to talk to a survivor … and this survivor broke down and said 'Please, please accept it. It is part and parcel of an apology'," she said.

"I decided, when he said that, if that's what it does for him I hope it does the same for the rest of the survivors - that the establishment are acknowledging all these people who are stigmatised. To me, you can't refuse that."

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Gallery: The New Year Honours List

Actor John Hurt receives a knighthood

Joan Collins receives a DBE (Dame Commander)

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Actor James Corden receives an OBE

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There's an OBE for actress Emily Watson

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Trevor Baylis, the inventor of the wind-up radio, receives a CBE

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New inquests into the deaths of the 96 Liverpool football fans who were crushed to death in 1989 are currently being held after the original verdicts of accidental death were quashed in December 2012.

Trevor Hicks, whose daughters Sarah and Victoria died in the disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's ground, has also been awarded a CBE for his work with bereaved families.

Both have mixed feelings after what Mrs Aspinall called the "long, long struggle" for justice from the authorities who were now 25 years later bestowing titles on them.

Mr Hicks said he was proud of the award, but added: "It is with understandable regret that Sarah, Victoria and the rest of the 96 paid the ultimate price, and clearly I wish none of this had ever happened."

Shadow health minister Andy Burnham also said he interpreted the honours as an apology.

"These awards will be seen as a gesture of apology and reconciliation from a British establishment which failed these families, and an entire city, so badly," he said.

The full list of names on the New Year Honours list has now been released, but officials say they will investigate how the media found out about so many of the celebrity honours ahead of publication.

It was leaked that Joan Collins would become a Dame, along with Kristen Scott Thomas, and that John Hurt would receive a knighthood, while James Corden and Sheridan Smith are both getting OBEs.

Sir Bob Kerslake, the outgoing head of the Civil Service, described the leaks as "highly regrettable" and added: "I am concerned by how much was leaked. We will look into the leak and the high number of names."

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Gallery: Who Refused Honours And Why?

Former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill was offered the Dukedom of London in 1955, but declined in order to continue serving in the House of Commons

Olympics opening ceremony director Danny Boyle declined a knighthood in 2013, saying: 'I'm very proud to be an equal citizen, and I think that's what the opening ceremony was actually about'

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He said: "I think it's unfair on the individuals who are asked, indeed instructed, to keep the fact that they are recipients of awards confidential."

Inspiring people from across the UK were also honoured. MBEs were awarded to Paul Cummings and Tom Piper, the creators of the WWI Centenary poppy memorial at the Tower of London.

Esther Rantzen became a Dame for her work as founder of ChildLine. She Told Sky News: "There was a very formal invitation to be elevated to be a Dame if I was agreeable, and it mentioned the Prime Minister and the Queen.

"I just stood there reading it, quite stunned. And then my daughter arrived and read it and began to jump around the room. So I jumped round the room too."

Some 74% of recipients this year are being recognised for outstanding work in the community, and 45% are women, compared with 35% last year, but the list still looking to be more diverse with only 6% of successful candidates coming from ethnic minority communities.

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