EVESHAM’S MP is to be knighted for more than two decades of public and political service for people in Worcestershire.

Peter Luff, MP for Mid Worcestershire, is to become “Sir Peter” after he was named in the New Year Honours list published on Monday.

The 58-year-old, who will retire from Parliament ahead of the next general election in 2015, said the award was an “honour”.

“I was very surprised and it is a wonderful end to my political career, the icing on the cake of a great time in politics,” he said.

“This is an honour I share with my constituents as, without the confidence they have shown in me, I would not have got this.

“I am very grateful to all the people who have supported me so long and I want to share this with them.

“Without the enormous support of my wife, it would not have happened at all. It is an honour.”

The citation from the Cabinet Office read: “He was a scrupulously non-partisan chair of two select committees and has also served as a Parliamentary private secretary (in three departments), Parliamentary under secretary of state and a whip.

“He is co-chair of the speakers’ advisory committee on the 2015 anniversaries. He is a long-standing campaigner for British engineering, with an emphasis on the need for more young people to train as engineers and scientists.

He supports numerous charitable organisations in his constituency.”

He said his wife Julia, also his secretary, and children, Rosie, 28, and Oliver, 25, were all thrilled he is to be knighted.

Mr Luff was first elected as MP for Worcester in 1992 and then for the new Mid Worcestershire seat in 1997.