An MSP has told how she felt “overwhelmed” when she learned she will become a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
Pam Duncan-Glancy is recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours for years of public and political service.
Speaking to the PA news agency, the Labour Glasgow MSP – the first permanent wheelchair user to be elected to the Scottish Parliament and a tireless disability campaigner – said she had learned about the honour in a text from her husband after she had received an email about it.
“I was overwhelmed, to be honest, and could hardly believe what I was reading,” she said.
“I’m really, really proud to have been given this honour for the work that I’ve done in the community and for disability rights.
“It’s a real honour to do this.
“When I got elected as an MSP, I said I was a wee working class woman in a wheelchair. To think that I could be a wee working class woman in a wheelchair who’s also got an MBE, I just thought that was pretty special.”
While receiving such an honour from the Palace requires discretion, Ms Duncan-Glancy admitted she struggled keeping it all a secret.
“I told my sister, obviously my husband knows and I told my team and a couple of friends, but it was really difficult to keep it quiet,” she said.
With just 11 months until the next Holyrood election, the MSP said there is “loads more” the Scottish Parliament and politics more widely has to do for more disabled people to seek election.
“We need to support people to be active in their communities in the first place,” she said.
“For disabled people, it can often be about giving them help to get out of bed in the morning.
“There’s quite a mountain to climb for us to support disabled people to get into politics and it’s a mountain we absolutely have to climb, because there should be no space about us, without us.
“We need to do everything we possibly can to get more representation of disabled people, not just in Parliament or councils, but everywhere.”
Elected in 2021, Ms Duncan-Glancy has impressed in her first term as an MSP, being given a spot on the Scottish Labour frontbench before even making it to Holyrood, when she was appointed social security spokeswoman by leader Anas Sarwar in the early weeks of his tenure.
Before entering politics, she worked in communications for the NHS and campaigned for the rights of disabled people.
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