Speaker throws weight behind Kevin Sinfield knighthood calls with 9-word post

Ben Olawumi 07 Dec 2025 8:37 PM

Kevin Sinfield all smiles as he runs near Green Hammerton on the final day of his '7 in 7: Together' challenge in 2025

Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has called for Kevin Sinfield to receive a knighthood – insisting he has ‘earned it’.

Adlington-born Hoyle is a lifelong rugby league fan, with his late father Lord Doug – who passed away earlier this year at the age of 98 – having served as the chairman of Super League outfit Warrington Wolves’ between 1999 and 2009.

Elected as the Speaker of the House of Commons in 2019, 68-year-old Lindsay has never been shy of promoting rugby league in his role, spending two years in a position as the President of the Rugby Football League (RFL) between 2022 and 2024.

Leeds Rhinos icon Sinfield has now been fundraising for the MND community for more than half a decade, inspired by friend and team-mate Rob Burrow’s battle against the disease, which saw him pass away in June 2024.

Sunday afternoon saw Sinfield arrive at Headingley as he completed the last of his seven consecutive ultra-marathons – finishing his ‘7 in 7: Together’ challenge.

Just as there has been in previous years, there have been plenty of calls for the 45-year-old to be knighted for his fundraising efforts.

And now, Hoyle has joined the list of people to call for that knighthood to happen – doing so via social media.

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Speaker throws weight behind Kevin Sinfield knighthood calls with 9-word post

As part of his superhuman 2025 efforts, Sinfield ran a marathon every day for seven days straight in seven different locations.

Those marathons were done in seven-kilometre blocks, started on the hour, every hour.

At the end of each marathon, he and his team then ran ‘The Extra Mile’, inviting members of the MND community to join them.

BBC Breakfast posted a video of Sinfield arriving at Headingley on Sunday afternoon on X, and it was via a quote tweet that Hoyle called for a knighthood for the Oldham native.

The Speaker wrote: “What an amazing man, you have earned a knighthood.”