Ricky Gervais wants celebrities banned from New Year’s Honours list in favour of NHS workers

‘We’ve got to remember we clapped for them,’ said comedian

Ricky Gervais has called for celebrities to be snubbed from the Queen’s New Years Honours list in 2020, to make space for NHS workers who have risked their lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I never want anyone to complain about the NHS again, or nurses or doctors or anyone on the front line,” he said in a newly resurfaced radio interview on The Christian O’Connell Show.

“We’ve got to remember we clapped for them and that should always be there.”

He added: “The New Years Honours list should not go to celebrities this year. It should go to those people. It should go to those people anyway.

“Give it to someone who gave a kidney to a stranger, not someone who invented a new type of mascara.

“I’ve seen people given a knighthood for services to fashion. What are you talking about, services to fashion? Services to a man who invented the mullet.

“Christ, it’s not that hard. People are finding cures for cancer and AIDs.”

In April, it was announced that Gervais was among a host of celebrities including Paul McCartney and Emma Thompson who are contributing to a new charity book called Dear NHS: 100 Love Stories to Say Thank You.

The book, which will be edited by This is Going to Hurt author Adam Kay, will raise money for the NHS amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and will contain anecdotes and tributes from 100 different well-known personalities.