Foreign Office Revokes Mugabe Knighthood

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, has been stripped of his knighthood, the Foreign Office said today.

Mugabe was created an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1994. Calls for the honor to be revoked date back at least to 2003, when the foreign affairs select committee in parliament suggested such a measure.

The withdrawal of Mugabe's knighthood represents a minor volte face for the Foreign Office. When the issue cropped up earlier this month, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, said such a step would play into Mugabe's hands.

"I have to say that my first reaction in the Foreign Office was that the knighthood should be removed," Miliband said at the time.

"But Robert Mugabe's game is to present the election as a fight between him and Britain when in fact it is a battle for different visions of different Zimbabwean politicians. Removing a knighthood will not bring food or help to people in desperate need, but will fuel Mugabe's game, and we should not be party to that."

The last person to be stripped of an honor was Naseem Hamed. The boxer had his MBE taken away in 2006 because of a conviction for dangerous driving.

Others include Kim Philby, who was stripped of his OBE in 1965 after his conviction for being a double agent, and Anthony Blunt, the art historian who was revealed to be the "fourth man" of the Cambridge five, a group of spies working for the Soviet Union.

Lester Piggot, the champion jockey, was stripped of his OBE in 1988 after his conviction for tax fraud.