Alison Hammond: This Morning host receives top honour from Paloma Faith at the Burberry British Diversity Awards

Alison Hammond received a top honour at the Burberry British Diversity Awards in London on Wednesday night.

The This Morning host, 48, from Birmingham, was recognised for highlighting racism, inequality and injustice on major broadcasting platforms and across her social media platform.

More than 1,000 celebrities and influential business leaders gathered at Grosvenor House Hotel last night (22 March) to honour those inspiring change across diversity and inclusion.

Award-winning artist Paloma Faith, 41, from London, presented Alison with the trophy for Media Diversity Champion of the Year, sponsored by drink company Greene King.

The new Great British Bake Off host took to Instagram, after the ceremony, to share her delight and dedicate her award to single mothers.

The mother-of-one wrote: “Blown away at winning a @britdiversity award tonight for Media Champion in the public eye presented by the lovely @palomafaith (who has cracked me up all night )Thank you so much I’m dedicating this award to all the single mothers out there making sacrifices in order to provide and inspire our future generations 🥇”

Alan Carr, Ellie Simmonds OBE, Jill Scott OBE, John Bishop, Little Simz, Ncuti Gatwa, Romesh Ranganathan, Sadiq Khan and Stormzy were also shortlisted for the award.

The annual ceremony was hosted by television presenter, diversity expert and author June Sarpong OBE and NHS doctor and television presenter Dr Ranj Singh.

It saw Eméli Sande perform a stunning live set and Labour MP Dawn Butler deliver a keynote speech on the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Burberry British Diversity Awards founder, Linda Riley, who praised Alison’s “well deserved” win, said: “I’d like to congratulate all of the deserving winners at this year’s Burberry-sponsored British Diversity Awards.

“The awards rightly recognise the organisations and individuals who are doing so much to champion diversity in the workplace. It is such an important strand of any business and the winners understand how vital it is.

“Diversity not only drives up standards and engenders a more cohesive culture but it also helps boost productivity and growth.”

She added: “We have come so far but we are witnessing a worrying increase in intolerance and hate crimes against minorities. That’s why we will continue to bang the drum for all things diversity and inclusion to make the UK a better place to live and work for everyone.”

Here is the full list of British Diversity Awards 2023 winners:

• Community Project of the Year - UK Black Pride - sponsored by Sedulo
• Head of Diversity of the Year - Cecil Peters at J.P Morgan - sponsored by 10X Banking
• Hero of the Year - Katie Neeves at Cool2BTrans - sponsored by Boots 
• Diversity in Technology (Disability) - Brain in Hand - sponsored by BT
• Marketing Campaign of the Year - Gender Identity Policy Campaign by Virgin Atlantic - sponsored by Denovo Legal Services 
• Sustainability Champion of the Year - Sophie Platts at Entain Group - sponsored by Centrica
• Diversity Team of the Year - Inclusion Team at HSBC UK - sponsored by Haleon
• Charity of the Year - Micro Rainbow - sponsored by Burberry
• Inspirational Role Model of the Year - Hannah Awonuga at Barclays - sponsored by Lockton
• Outstanding Employee Network of the Year - Collabor8 at Santander Consumer Finance
• Outstanding Disability Network of the Year - Disability & Neurodiversity Employee Resource Groups - AMS - sponsored by EmployAbility
• Outstanding Ethnic Diversity Network of the Year - Oliver Wyman at Empowered 
• Outstanding LGBTQIA Network of the Year - HSBC UK - Pride - sponsored by myGwork
• Social Mobility Initiative of the Year - Passport to Change by Virgin Atlantic 
• HR Champion of the Year - Sharlene John at Selfridges - sponsored by Ruebik 
• Company of the Year - Kantar - sponsored by National Grid
• Diversity Champion of the Year - Deon Pillay at Legal & General Investment Management - sponsored by Leathwaite 
• Media Champion in the Public Eye - Alison Hammond - sponsored by Greene King 
• Outstanding Commitment to Diversity - Phyll Opoku-Gyimah - sponsored by Attest