“A knighthood for a war criminal, but not for a war hero.”
Mere days after he received the honour, more than 130,000 people at the time of writing have signed a petition calling for Tony Blair’s knighthood to be taken back.
The decision to award the honour to the former Labour leader and PM has sparked backlash in the wake of his involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some have labelled Blair a “war criminal”, and alleged his handling of the Iraq war directly led to the deaths of hundreds of British army personnel and thousands of civilians in the region.
Frankie London, 53, was one of the first to sign the petition.
Mr London, of Southend, Essex, said: “A knighthood for that repugnant man Tony Blair, but still no knighthood for the last surviving Dambuster George ‘Johnny’ Johnson in his 100th year is a national shame.
“A knighthood for a war criminal, but not for a war hero.”
Deborah Warford, another signatory, said: “Tony Blair should be prosecuted not knighted.
“Someone like this being honoured shows how corrupt and vile the system is.”
Fergus Murray said: “As long as people like Blair get honoured, this whole system dishonours us.”
The 2016 Chilcot Report on the Iraq war found that Blair presented the case for war with “a certainty which was not justified” based on “flawed” intelligence about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction.
Angus Scott, who started the petition on the website change.org, said: “Tony Blair caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society.
“He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts. For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes.”
He added: “Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen.
“We petition the Prime Minister to petition Her Majesty to have this honour removed.”
All but one of the Queen’s nine Prime Ministers before Blair were appointed a Knight of the Garter, an honour created by Edward III in 1348, a few years after leaving office. The only exception, Alec Douglas-Home, was awarded the Order of the Thistle.
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