Dishonours list
ELEVEN holders of top honours are being stripped of their awards for bringing the system into disrepute, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The biggest single instance of honours being forfeited in modern times includes a former aide to David Cameron losing his OBE after being convicted for downloading indecent images of children.
Among the others are a vet with an MBE who was convicted of animal cruelty, and a servant of the Queen jailed for taking bribes for Buckingham Palace contracts.
The mass forfeiture raises further concerns about the honours system and the need for thorough checks on those given official awards. Veteran Labour MP Paul Flynn last night called the entire system ‘dishonoured’.
There have been widespread calls for tycoon Sir Philip Green to be stripped of his knighthood after he sold department store chain BHS with a pensions deficit of £571million, but the Government has resisted the demands.
Previous casualties include entertainer Rolf Harris, who lost his CBE after being convicted of indecent assault on teenage girls, and Anthony Blunt, the Queen’s art expert who was stripped of his knighthood in 1979 after he admitted being a Soviet spy.
The decision to strip the 11 of their awards was made by the Honours Forfeiture Committee, which is made up of senior Government
‘The whole system is an embarrassment’
mandarins and lawyers. The Queen then gives her approval. There is no right of appeal.
The news will not have been a surprise for many on the list, with some having spent time in prison and others still serving sentences.
Patrick Rock, who was a policy chief for David Cameron when he was Prime Minister, was given a two-year conditional discharge last summer after being found guilty of five counts of downloading indecent images of young girls.
The damning reasons for annulments usually emerge long after the honours had been given. But shockingly, Falklands veteran Adrian Stone was awarded an MBE a month after being charged for sex assaults on children. He was later jailed.
RAF chef Robert Constable was stripped of an MBE for long service. Last year he was jailed after he admitted assaulting schoolgirls.
The roll call of disgrace also includes Ronald Harper, a former property manager to the Queen – he was found to be skimming money from contracts. Mr Harper was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order – given at the discretion of the Queen – in 2004.
Former headmaster Stanley Poots, who received an MBE in 2011 after being praised for running a primary school in Northern Ireland, was later found to be siphoning funds.
Philippa Rodale, a vet given an MBE for services to animal medicine, lost her award almost two years after leaving a dog with a broken back to die.
Craig Burrows was awarded an MBE in 2004 for charity work in the Philippines while working as a missionary priest. He was later found guilty of assaulting two young girls. Another churchman lost his OBE after being forced into retirement following allegations of abuse.
Mr Flynn, the MP for Newport West, said: ‘The honours system does some good for the unsung heroes, but cases like this show it is an embarrassment.
‘The system is dishonoured and we are best starting again.’ Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda and author of the book Entitled, a critical history of the British aristocracy, said: ‘It seems that people get honours for political service, and not for more important services to their community.
‘Our attachment to the British Empire in our awards is very strange and it’s odd to give people these things in the modern era. Other countries have managed to update themselves but Britain has not. The whole system needs reshaping.’
The Cabinet Office declined to comment.