Britain's most acclaimed Paralympian Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson yesterday criticised the government for snubbing disabled athletes in the New Year's Honours list.

Dame Tanni, who won a total of 11 gold medals and was awarded the OBE and the MBE and made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005, pointed to a “lack of parity” in the honours system.

Every Olympic gold medalist at the Beijing games was given honours.

However, 17 of the 35 Paralympic athletes who brought home golds — including our own Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop –missed out.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Dame Tanni said the achievements of able-bodied and disabled athletes should be given equal recognition after the 2012 games in London.

“The reality — and it is surely not right — is that you have to multi-medal at the Paralympic Games to get a New Year's Honours list award,” she said.

“By the time 2012 comes around, we need to get this in order. There is a lack of parity, and we are playing catch-up.

“When I got my MBE after 1992 (after three golds and one silver medal at the Paralympic Games in Barcelona) there were hardly any Paralympians who ever received honours.”

Great Britain's Paralympics team won 102 medals, including 42 golds, to finish second in the medals table behind China, making them Britain's most successful Paralympics team in two decades.

Team GB came fourth in the medal table with a haul of 47 medals, including 19 golds — their best performance since the London Games of 1908.

Paralympic swimmer Eleanor Simmonds won two golds and received an MBE, while Rebecca Adlington was given the higher-ranked OBE for her two golds.

Meanwhile, Paralympian David Roberts, who won four golds in the pool in Beijing and equalled Dame Tanni's overall tally of 11 golds, received a CBE.

Tim Reddish, the newly-elected chairman of the British Paralympic Association, told the Telegraph: “We are delighted to see these Paralympic athletes recognised in the honours list for their contribution to British sport and their magnificent achievements.

“We are, however, very disappointed that not all the Beijing 2008 Paralympic gold medalists could be recognised, but we look forward to more athletes being honoured in the future.”

The Cabinet Office, which manages the honours system, is handed a list of athletes to be given awards by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

According to the paper, it is believed that the DCMS agreed the list with the British Paralympic Association before giving it to the Cabinet Office.

Dame Tanni, who sits on a committee that helps decide which athletes should receive awards, later insisted she was “hugely supportive” of the honours system.

She told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I don't think there is any right or wrong with the honours system. It is not based on ‘you win a medal, this is the award you get'.

“It's based on where you are in your career, the magnitude of what you've achieved, where you're going, are you going to be around in four years time?

“I think with sport it's difficult, you don't get this kind of discussion around an actor or someone involved in charity work because it's not comparable.”