The New Year is upon us and the time has come for the Birmingham Post’s annual political awards, as we look at the MPs who made their mark in 2013.

The John Lewis award for being never knowingly undersold goes to Vince Cable, for overseeing the flotation of Royal Mail.

Shares in Royal Mail went for 330p each – but have been selling for 577.5p on the stock market, so that investors enjoyed a tidy profit of 75 per cent.

Given that the rise was widely predicted, and there was surely very little risk involved in buying the shares, the flotation could be characterised as the Government giving people free money.

Sadly for some of us, however, you had to buy at least £750 worth in order to benefit from the initial flotation. If you didn’t have £750 in the bank to invest, you missed out on the bonanza,

The Dr Beeching award for cutting the rail network goes to Ed Balls, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, who announced during Labour’s annual conference that the party was reconsidering its support for HS2, the planned high speed rail line from London to Birmingham and on to Manchester and Leeds.

The announcement came as a surprise to Maria Eagle, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary at the time, who contradicted him in her own speech the next day – and was promptly punted sideways to the Shadow Environment brief, where she can’t upset Ed any more.

It was also a surprise to major council leaders including Sir Albert Bore, Labour leader of Birmingham City Council, who wrote an angry letter to the Labour leadership, warning the U-turn could put the next election at risk.

Perhaps that’s why Labour has quietly returned to supporting HS2 (while insisting there never was a wobble, naturally).

Even so, Mr Balls gave fresh hope to opponents of HS2, who had finally come to terms with the fact that the network was actually going to be built – before he suggested it might yet be cancelled after all.

The Kinks award for being a dedicated follower of fashion goes to Birmingham MP Roger Godsiff (Lab Hall Green) who proved he was more than willing to oppose fashionable opinion even if it upset some of his own party.

Hence, Mr Godsiff opposed same-sex marriage, and demanded a referendum on quitting the EU.

The Gloria Gaynor award for refusing to give up goes to Birmingham Hodge Hill MP Liam Byrne.

Sacked as Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, he accepted a far more junior role as Shadow Universities Minister in Labour’s business team.

Mr Byrne’s willingness to take the job, rather than heading off to sulk on the back benches, partly reflects the fact that Labour leader Ed Miliband’s position is secure - and there’s a good chance he’ll win the next election.

That means that, for an ambitious Labour politician, being a loyal follower of Mr Miliband is the only game in town.

There’s no chance of someone a bit friendlier to Mr Byrne taking over and giving him his old job back, so if he wants to be in Government at all in the foreseeable future then he has to take what he can get.

Still, it must rankle a little that he was sacked partly for being unpopular with his party – when his replacement, Rachel Reeves, is backing exactly the same policies and is apparently highly regarded.

But there’s another side to this tale. Mr Miliband was apparently angry that Mr Byrne (and one or two other colleagues, who were also sacked or demoted) had been disloyal to him.

Disloyal in what way? You may well ask, as there was precious little evidence of Mr Byrne being involved in any plots. The fact is that behind the scenes, Labour is not quite the happy team it appears.

Ed Miliband and those around him still fear his position is insecure – for no apparent reason – and while the distrust usually focuses on Mr Balls and Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, it seems Mr Byrne may have been a victim too,

The Sean Connery award for never saying never again (again) goes to Black Country MP Tom Watson, who resigned from Labour’s front bench team for a third time when he stood down as campaign co-ordinator.

Mr Watson resigned as a Minister once, under Tony Blair, and a second time under Gordon Brown. He says it is very unlikely he will return to the front benches a fourth time, but declines to rule it out entirely.

Officially, Mr Watson quit because of a row over the selection of a Labour candidate in Falkirk, Scotland.

But he also set out his thoughts on Labour and politics in general in a review of the Glastonbury Festival, which he attended shortly before the most recent resignation.

Reporting on his feelings as he watched a band named Drenge, he said: “It’s been missing from the Labour Party since Tony Blair marched us into the arid desert of pragmatism that was so electorally successful.

"It’s belief. Belief in ourselves. Belief in the great cause of social progress.

The marketing men, the spin people and the special advisers: they’ve won. For those brief minutes of Drenge I wanted to sack them all.”