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Mr Blackman was elected as a Conservative MP in 2010, following 24 years as a councillor, including stints as Brent Council leader from 1990-96 and as the Brent and Harrow member of the London Assembly between 2004-2008.
The Commander of the Order of the British Empire award ranks higher than an OBE and MBE, and is one rank below knighthood.
Mr Blackman said he is “really pleased” with the honour, a “very good celebration of rather a long time in politics – and still more to come.”
After election as secretary of the 1922 Committee in 2015 – the parliamentary group of Conservative backbench MPs – Mr Blackman later joined the eurosceptic European Research Group, supporting the Brexit campaign.
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In 2016, he tabled the Homelessness Reduction Bill with homelessness charity Crisis – his first Private Member’s Bill. Mr Blackman describes it as his “proudest” moment in politics.
He said: “Prior to the bill, local authorities had no duty whatsoever to help single people that were threatened with being homeless or were actually homeless.”
Authorities were only obliged to help “families and children under the age of 16, those with addictions and medical conditions, either physical or mental.”
The bill meant that everyone was entitled to help from their local authority, whether already homeless or facing homelessness.
“I get the most satisfaction from helping and assisting honourable people in my constituency, who basically have been banging their head against a brick wall.
“By assisting them, they can achieve what they want to achieve, and that to me has always been the most important element of being a politician.”
Mr Blackman is also the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness.
It’s a double celebration for Mr Blackman this weekend, after his second Private Member’s Bill passed its…
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