Liverpool football great Kenny Dalglish has been knighted and Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson made a dame in the Queen's Birthday Honours - while Network Rail boss Mark Carne has attracted criticism for his recognition.

Kenny Dalglish

Mr Carne received a CBE against a backdrop of huge disruption for train passengers in recent weeks, with politicians and rail groups describing the award as a "slap in the face" for commuters.

Labour MP Lisa Nandy called for his honour to be withdrawn, saying there was "absolutely no way that the Government should press ahead with this award".

She told The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 that the decision was "just another kick in the teeth" for rail travellers.

"It's the most astonishing thing to have happened in a week when commuters have been suffering from rail chaos", she added.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the award "brought the honours system into disrepute".

He told BBC's Newsnight: "We have the most dysfunctional rail system in the western world, I would argue, certainly when it comes to local and commuter trains, so anybody amongst the rail industry leadership - whether it be Network Rail or the Department for Transport - to be given an honour of this kind...is an insult, a slap in the face to millions of travellers up and down the country who are suffering because of the failure of that leadership."

The Department for Transport admitted the timing of the announcement of the outgoing chief executive's award for services to the rail industry following timetabling issues was "unfortunate" but added that recent problems should not detract from his overall service.

Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy also defended his "tremendous contribution to our railways".

He added: "It is right he is honoured just before he retires from one of the biggest and most challenging jobs in UK industry."

But one union boss likened the timing of the honour to "rewarding the captain of the Titanic for jumping ship".

Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, said: "Frustrated passengers will see no honour in that at all."

And Emily Yates, of the Association of British Commuters, said: "It is a sign that the rail industry is badly out of touch with the real pain and suffering that people are going through - it is a pantomime."