Conservative Suffolk Coastal parliamentary candidate Therese Coffey has been made a dame, it has been announced.

Dame Therese, a former health secretary, environment secretary and work and pensions secretary, is defending her seat for the Tories in the general election, having first won it back in 2010.

The announcement came as the government released a dissolution honours list a short while before the polls closed at 10pm on Thursday.

Alongside making Therese Coffey a dame, Rishi Sunak handed peerages to former prime minister Theresa May and former chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady, as well as chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith, former transport secretary Chris Grayling, Sir Alok Sharma and Dame Eleanor Laing.

Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, former chief whip Julian Smith, former defence secretary Ben Wallace and Scotland secretary Alister Jack have been nominated for knighthoods.

Among Sir Keir Starmer’s nominations for peerages are Dame Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman, Margaret Hodge and Kevan Jones.