ROBERT MUGABE is set to join a select band whose deeds are so heinous that they have been stripped of their knighthoods.

The Zimbabwean President, whose country lies on the brink of ruin, was given the honorary award for his contribution to relations with Britain in 1994. That rapport has now soured to the point where Britain would like to see the back of him.

Having failed to usurp Mr Mugabe through sanctions, Tony Blair agreed reluctantly to a more symbolic gesture yesterday. This comes after the decision of the Commonwealth at the weekend to continue Zimbabwe’s suspension and Mr Mugabe’s retaliatory exit from the organisation.

Mr Blair was asked by Andrew Robathan, Conservative MP for Blaby, whether he would recommend withdrawing the knighthood awarded to Mr Mugabe on his last state visit to Britain.

Ministers have previously brushed aside the question of the knighthood which was raised earlier by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Mr Blair said: “We will certainly look at the issue of the honorary knighthood, although I somehow question what the impact of that might be on him.”

A small band of heroes-turned-villains have been stripped of their knighthoods. They include Roger Casement, the official who lost his knighthood and was executed in 1916 for conspiring to supply German weapons to Irish Nationalists and Anthony Blunt, the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures and former MI5 agent. He lost his title in 1979 after being exposed as a Soviet spy. Jack Lyons, the financier, forfeited his in 1991 after being convicted in the Guinness trial of theft and false accounting. Other recipients of honorary knighthoods include Nicolai Ceausescu, the former Romanian leader.

Honorary knighthoods are awarded by the Queen on the advice of the Foreign Office to those who have “made an important contribution to relations between their country and Britain”. They are not allowed to use the title of “Sir”.

Mr Mugabe also has India’s most prestigious decoration, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, awarded in 1989 for being a “a champion of the oppressed”.

The Indian High Commission last night said there were no plans to review the award.

As Mr Blair reported back to the Commons on the Commonwealth summit in Nigeria that eventually agreed to continue Zimbabwe’s indefinite suspension, Mr Mugabe flew to a technology conference in Geneva due to be attended by 60 heads of Government.

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