Former training provider boss and renowned entrepreneur Angela Middleton has been stripped of her MBE by King Charles for “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.
Middleton, a media commentator and self-proclaimed “careers queen”, was awarded the honour in 2019 for her services to apprenticeships and business.
She ran a group of training companies until late 2020, initially blaming the “devastating impact of Covid-19” for their collapse.
FE Week later discovered their closure followed the launch of an Education and Skills Funding Agency counter-fraud probe.
The DfE wrote off over £12.5 million in 2024 as funding that wasn’t recovered from Middleton’s businesses: Astute Minds Ltd (£9.9 million), MiddletonMurray Ltd (£1.4 million), FNTC Training and Consultancy (£900,000) and The Teaching and Learning Group Limited (£456,000).
The department has never published the investigation outcome report into Middleton’s companies.
A notice published on The Gazette, the UK’s public record of honours, said: “The King has directed that the appointment of Angela Jane Middleton to be a Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated 29 December 2018 shall be cancelled and annulled and that her name shall be erased from the register of the said order.”
A separate Cabinet Office notice added that the reason for forfeiture was for “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.
The DfE was approached for comment.
Middleton states on her website that she appears on well-known media outlets and has links to high-profile politicians.
She is also a fitness guru who founded companies called YourBodyMeansBusiness and The Limitless Group.
Middleton was approached for comment.
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