A former Rutherglen MP who served the area for over two decades has been knighted in the New Year Honours list.
Tommy McAvoy received a KBE (Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in recognition of his political and public services over the years.
Baron McAvoy was the MP for Rutherglen, and later Rutherglen and Hamilton West, for 23 years, from 1987 to 2010, and is now a member of the House of Lords.
He told Lanarkshire Live he was delighted at the honour, which came several months after he stood down as the Opposition Chief Whip in the Upper House.
He said: "I got a good rousing send-off from being the chief whip, and I thought that was that, to be honest.
"Then I got the letter about the KBE and I was quite delighted. The Labour party had nominated me, and then it had to pass through various bodies before being approved. So I was quite pleased to get through that, and that there were no objections!"
The honour is not something he would have expected many years ago, when he started his political career as a trade unionist at the Hoover factory in Cambuslang, before representing Labour on the Strathclyde Regional Council in 1982, and then becoming the area's MP five years later.
He held various positions in the Whip's office during Labour's 13 years in government and then was made a life peer in the House of Lords, after standing down from Westminster at the 2010 general election.
In 2005, boundary changes meant the Rutherglen seat became Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
The 78-year-old is in no doubt who he is most grateful to for his latest honour.
He explained: "First and foremost, I owe a lot to the constituents who kept voting me in.
"At the end of the day you work for them, and I really did my best to help people in Rutherglen, Cambuslang, Toryglen, King's Park and each area that came under the boundary.
"I was always grateful to be elected. I've had a lot of nice messages since the news came out, and I'm quite chuffed about that.
"I'm proud that I was a Labour whip for the full 13 years in government, from having royal duties and being comptroller of her majesty's household to being the deputy chief whip and treasurer of the household - that connection was always there."
Having stepped back from his whip's role in the House of Lords last May, he admits that part of him misses such close involvement with politics.
"I do miss it, but it was the right time to do it. My wife Eleanor has been a stalwart for the whole time I've been in politics, and it's been nice having more time with her.
"However my family have already told me there's no way they'll be calling me Sir!"
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