THE leader of the House of Commons has appeared to show his support for giving Gary Verity a knighthood for the staging of the Tour de France in Yorkshire.

William Hague, whose Richmond constituency featured heavily in the last year's Grand Depart, said the it was fitting for people who organised the world's largest annual sporting event to be acknowledged and that the Welcome to Yorkshire boss had played a "crucial and important role".

The event, which brought the world’s greatest cyclists to Yorkshire over three days in July, saw millions of people line the route and boosted the region's economy by more than £100m.

Last month, Liz Nicholl, chief executive of UK Sport said the staging of the event, which Mr Verity helped oversee, ranked alongside the London 2012 Olympics.

Uproar ensued last week after it emerged the Yorkshire Dales sheep farmer, whose idea it was to bring the cycling race furthest north it had ever been and also led the successful bid, had been overlooked in the New Year Honours.

Yorkshire Cricket Club captain Andrew Gale led the storm of protest, while council chiefs questioned whether the apparent snub was an "act of revenge from those in power", after a bitter battle between the Mr Verity and the Government, which had backed a bid to stage the event in Edinburgh.

Speaking after the riders left the region, Mr Verity admitted to not being popular with the establishment.

He said: "I am not expecting to get any sort of gong, or whatever you want to call it."

Calling for a debate in the House of Commons yesterday (Thursday, January 8) on how the honours list is determined, Shipley MP Philip Davies said Mr Verity had been a "glaring omission" from the honours and deserved a knighthood.

Mr Hague replied there was a consensus that many people did tremendous work to bring the event to Yorkshire and hinted Mr Verity could receive an honour in the future.

He said: "It was a fantastic success. It is right those people are recognised and I agree with what my honorable friend said about the crucial and important role that Gary Verity played as leader of Welcome to Yorkshire.

"I cannot comment on how the honours system operates, but I will certainly convey what my honorable friend has said about Gary Verity to all those responsible.

"After all, the New Year’s Honours list, while an important list, is not the only honours list in the year and so names can be considered for another list as well."