Video: Selina Scott and Jonathan Dimbleby at the Variety Club Business Awards

Ms Scott, the Scarborough-born journalist, campaigner and sock entrepreneur, compered the event which included speeches from BBC current affairs heavyweight Jonathan Dimbleby and England rugby coach Stuart Lancaster. The event, which had the Yorkshire Post and Howgate Sable as its headline sponsors, raised more than £100,000 for Variety’s work with disadvantaged children in Yorkshire. During his speech at the event, held in The Queens Hotel in Leeds, Mr Dimbleby talked about his respect for the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr Dimbleby also criticised the quality of political debate about issues such as health, education and welfare.

He said afterwards: “The health service is running into a brick wall...Young people at primary school are not achieving their potential. There’s too much knock about; where people take easy Aunt Sally targets instead of having a serious debate. I really believe there has to be far more co-operation over these great long-term issues, otherwise we are going to be in terrible trouble.”

The business leader of the year award was presented to Philip Meeson, the chairman and founder of airline Jet2 by Bernard Ginns, the Yorkshire Post’s Business Editor. The board of the year title, sponsored by Howgate Sable, went to Turner & Townsend, while the SME of the year award, which was sponsored by Yorkshire Bank, went to Wagg Foods. The lifetime achievement award was presented to the playwright Kay Mellor. The other sponsors were Pinsent Masons, EY, Pace, Henderson Insurance Brokers, NM Rothschild, Yorkshire Building Society, Endless, Yorkshire Water, Design Portfolio and Premier Farnell.