News that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been knighted by Buckingham Palace with the highest possible ranking in the New Year Honours List has triggered a barrage of indignation on Twitter.
The former Labour Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007 has been appointed by Queen Elizabeth II a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter - the oldest and most senior British Order of Chivalry.
Blair was knighted alongside Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van-Tam, the professors who have regularly briefed the British nation from Downing Street on the government’s COVID-19 response. Unlike the main New Year Honours List, Blair’s appointment is made by the Queen and has been regularly bestowed upon past prime ministers. The last to receive such a knighthood was Blair’s predecessor Sir John Major.
Blair, who will now be able to use the title ‘Sir’, in a statement said it was “an immense honour” to be knighted.
Buckingham Palace had said it was “graciously pleased” to knight the ex-PM.
However, many commented on social media that Blair should be in prison for ordering UK troops in November 2001 to join the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America. The then-British Prime Minister had also taken a decision to participate in the 2003 US coalition-led invasion of Iraq - the first stage of the Iraq War.
At the time Blair argued that the Saddam Hussein government possessed an active weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme. However, this later proved to be false, as no stockpiles of WMDs or an active WMD programme were ever found in Iraq. The move by Tony Blair subsequently triggered the 2016 Iraq Inquiry that looked into the UK government waging an unjustified and unnecessary invasion.
Blair has remained a controversial figure in the UK due to his involvement in the US and UK invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Political commentator Liam Young tweeted that Tony Blair “should be in the dock of The Hague.”
Writer, British political activist and co-founder of the pro-European Union advocacy group Our Future Our Choice (OFOC) Femi Oluwole also went on Twitter to deplore the decision to knight Blair.
GB News presenter Tonia Buxton was “sickened” by the decision.
John Smith, son of World War II veteran and writer Harry Leslie Smith, tweeted that Buckhingham Palace’s move was akin to saying “it's okay to kill brown people in their hundreds of thousands”.
Others on Twitter were similarly indignant.