AN online petition asking that former British prime minister Tony Blair’s newly announced knighthood be rescinded has been signed by more than 47,000 people as of yesterday evening, with the goal of at least 50,000 quickly drawing near.

The petition was created by Angus Scott at change.org as soon as the New Year honours were announced last night, according to Anadolu Agency.

Scott accused Blair of causing “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 said.

Describing Blair as “the least deserving person of any public honour”, he asked Queen Elizabeth II to have the honour removed.

Blair’s name was announced last night as an appointee to the Order of the Garter as a knight companion, 14 years after he left Downing Street as prime minister.

Blair’s knighthood caused an immediate backlash as he is often branded an architect of the 2003 Iraq War, which started in large part over claims of the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the country, which were never found.

Critics have accused Blair of joining then US president George W. Bush and sending British troops with US forces to invade Iraq, an action causing the deaths of more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians.

The Blair government’s decision to join the war also faced a backlash and many protests due to the lack of any UN Security Council resolution on military action against Iraq.

Then foreign secretary Robin Cook resigned from the cabinet in protest over Blair’s decision to invade without the authorisation of a UN resolution.

An inquiry by Sir John Chilcot in 2016 said the Blair government had failed to exhaust all peaceful options before joining the coalition to invade Iraq.

“The judgments about Iraq’s capabilities… were presented with a certainty that was not justified,” the Chilcot report said, confirming the lack of discovery of WMD.

More than 250,000 people, including combatants but mostly civilians, are thought to have been killed in Iraq’s upheaval since 2003. – Bernama, January 2, 2022.