Families of troops killed in Iraq tell of outrage at 'Sir Tony' Blair

Families of troops killed in Iraq tell of outrage at 'Sir Tony' Blair
Families of troops killed in Iraq tell of outrage at 'Sir Tony' Blair

Furious relatives of fallen troops have vowed to hand their medals back in disgust at Tony Blair’s knighthood as a petition to strip the former prime minister of the honour passed 750,000 signatures.

A group of military parents have started discussing a protest in London to return their Elizabeth Crosses, which are given to the next of kin of those killed in action.

They are enraged that Mr Blair has been knighted having started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that left their children among more than 600 British servicemen dead.

As signatures continued to mount on a Change.org petition calling for the knighthood to be rescinded, a senior serving Labour MP defied Sir Keir Starmer, who has said Sir Tony ‘deserves the honour’.

Killed: Simon Miller, 21, was shot dead by an Iraqi mob

Killed: Simon Miller, 21, was shot dead by an Iraqi mob

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the MP told the Daily Mail: ‘I just think it’s ridiculous he’s been given a knighthood – he’s an untried war criminal.’

Mark Thompson – whose son Kevin, 21, was killed by an IED near Basra in southern Iraq in 2007 – is among those planning to return their medals.

‘If Tony Blair receives a knighthood, I will return my son’s medal,’ he said. ‘I have spoken to more than ten families who are all prepared to hand their medals back. I think there are hundreds out there who will join us. They all feel the same way – they are all fuming. It is all so wrong.’

Mr Thompson, 61, a coach driver from Lancaster, is among those planning a possible protest in the capital.

Anger: John Miller with Elizabeth Cross given to the family after his son’s death

Anger: John Miller with Elizabeth Cross given to the family after his son’s death

He said: ‘We are considering meeting up, starting a petition and going to Downing Street and talking to Boris Johnson to tell him how we feel about all this.

‘I will hand my medal to a guard at Windsor Castle if I have to. It is heartbreaking, it really is heartbreaking.’

John Miller’s 21-year-old son Simon was among six Royal Military Policeman beaten and shot to death by a mob of 400 Iraqis in 2003. He vowed last night to join the parents in handing back the medals.

Mr Miller, 70, who lives with his wife Marilyn, 66, in Washington, Tyne and Wear, said: ‘We will join them if they want to make a statement. The medal doesn’t mean anything to me any more, so if others want to hand them back I will go with them.

Pictured: The Elizabeth Cross which was posthumously awarded to Private Kevin Thompson, 21, after his death in Iraq in 2007

Pictured: The Elizabeth Cross which was posthumously awarded to Private Kevin Thompson, 21, after his death in Iraq in 2007

‘I have put the medal in my bottom drawer, I don’t look at it. When the Queen gave Tony Blair his knighthood I took down a scroll from her thanking Simon for his service.

‘I used to be proud of it but now it means absolutely nothing. That was a kick in the teeth, when I heard she had given him a knighthood.’

Rose Gentle, 58, of Glasgow, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Basra in 2004, is also contemplating parting with her medal. She said: ‘I am considering returning my Elizabeth Cross if most parents think it is the right thing to do.

‘It’s a deeply personal decision for each bereaved family and, while my son deserves this medal, I want to see how things play out with Blair’s knighthood before I make my final decision.’

Killed: Kevin Thompson died in an IED explosion near Basra in 2007

Killed: Kevin Thompson died in an IED explosion near Basra in 2007

Hazel Hunt, 62, of Abergavenny, South Wales, is also considering the move. She lost her son Richard, 21, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in 2009 when he was killed in an explosion while on patrol with the Royal Welsh Regiment. Mrs Hunt said: ‘Those who know me know I have been a devout monarchist all my life, but I’m seriously contemplating sending the Elizabeth Cross back to Her Majesty as a sign of my protest and disgust at this decision. Did we and 456 other families from the Afghan campaign and 179 from the Iraq campaign lose a part of our family forever so that the wicked Blairs could go down in history?’

Another former soldier who gave his name as Steve told LBC that he is removing a tattoo of the Queen on his arm ‘immediately’ over the knighthood. He told the radio station: ‘She should be condemning him, not condoning him.’

But Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey warned that critics of Sir Tony’s knighthood were being ‘disrespectful’ to the Queen.

Sir Ed said: ‘If the Queen wants to knight a politician or someone out of politics in any walk of life, I think we should respect Her Majesty, and I’m

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