McGough won a Cholmondeley Award in 1998, and was appointed an Officer (OBE) in 1997, and later, in 2004, Commander (CBE) of the Order of the British Empire.[32]
He holds an honorary MA from Nene College of Further Education,[33] and honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) degrees from the University of Hull (2004),[34] Roehampton University (2006),[35] and the University of Liverpool (2006).[36] He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004.