Fred The Shred, Rolf Harris and six other fallen figures stripped of their honours
The Cabinet Office disclosed last week that it was reviewing his honour after a group of MPs wrote to the Honours Forfeiture Committee.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe committee will not consider reviewing the knighthood until the end of any formal reviews or investigations, but Sir Philip could join a host of disgraced public figures who have been stripped of their titles. They include:
• Rolf Harris, March 2015
The former children’s entertainer was stripped of his CBE by the Queen after being jailed for almost six years for a string of sex attacks on girls as young as seven.
Harris, 86, was made a CBE in 2006 by the Queen, a year after painting her portrait to mark her 80th birthday. He had previously been awarded an MBE and an OBE.
But his honour was annulled - alongside those awarded in his native Australia - after he was unmasked as a predatory paedophile and found guilty of 12 indecent assaults.
• Vicky Pryce, July 2013
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe economist was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2009 in recognition of her contribution as head of the Government economic service.
But in March 2013 she and ex-husband Chris Huhne were both jailed for eight months for swapping speeding penalty points a decade earlier so he could avoid a driving ban, which only emerged when Ms Pryce approached newspapers after Mr Huhne left her for another woman.
She was released from prison after two months but, following her conviction, her name was removed from the Order of the Bath register.
• James Crosby, June 2013
The former HBOS chief executive was stripped of his knighthood at his own request following a scathing parliamentary report into the bank’s collapse.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMr Crosby was given a knighthood after leaving HBOS in 2006.
But after the report he asked for his title to be removed and promised to give up 30% of his £580,000-a-year pension, saying he was “deeply sorry” for what happened and the “ensuing consequences” for the bailed-out bank’s staff, shareholders and taxpayers.
• Fred Goodwin, January 2012
Mr Goodwin received his knighthood for services to banking under the Labour government before guiding the Royal Bank of Scotland to the brink of collapse in 2008.
While honours are usually only removed from those convicted or jailed, the Cabinet Office said the scale of the RBS disaster - necessitating a £45 billion bailout from the taxpayer - made the case “exceptional”.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBut some, including former chancellor Alistair Darling, criticised such “tawdry” treatment, suggesting Mr Goodwin - nicknamed Fred The Shred - had been singled out by the Government while other senior figures escaped punishment.
• Jean Else, February 2011
“Superhead” Jean Else was made a Dame in 2001 in recognition of her transforming performance at Whalley Range High School in Manchester.
But in January 2009 she was banned from running a school after the General Teaching Council found her guilty of failing to observe minimum standards in recruiting and promoting staff.
Her honour was revoked in 2011 after she was found guilty of misconduct.
• Robert Mugabe, 2008
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdZimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was stripped of his honorary knighthood in 2008 over his ‘’abuse of human rights’’ and ‘’abject disregard’’ for democracy.
The Queen approved the annulment of Mr Mugabe’s knighthood , awarded in 1994, on the recommendation of then-Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
Mr Mugabe was the first foreigner to be stripped of an honorary knighthood since Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, the day before his execution by firing squad.
• “Prince” Naseem Hamed, 2007
The former WBA world featherweight champion was jailed in 2006 for 15 months and disqualified from driving for four years after a crash in May 2005 that left another man with fractures to “every major bone in his body”.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHamed was driving at around 90mph on the wrong side of the carriageway as he approached a blind dip on a road on the edge of the Peak District, smashing into painter and decorator Anthony Burgin’s Volkswagen Golf. Mr Burgin’s wife Claire was also seriously injured.
Hamed was stripped of his MBE in January 2007.
• Anthony Blunt, 1979
Art historian Anthony Blunt was a Professor of the History of Art at the University of London and Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures.
What was not know was that in 1964 he had confessed to having been a member of the infamous Cambridge Five Soviet spy ring, passing information to Moscow while they worked for MI5 during the Second World War.
His secret was closely guarded for many years, but Margaret Thatcher publicly revealed his status in November 1979 and he was immediately stripped of his knighthood.