Nearly 200,000 sign petition calling for Sir Iain Duncan Smith's knighthood to be blocked
Nearly 200,000 people have signed a petition calling for Sir Iain Duncan Smith’s knighthood to be revoked.
Tory MP Sir Iain was the architect of the government’s heavily-criticised Universal Credit benefits system when he was work and pensions secretary under David Cameron. The system has been blasted for leaving poorer claimants less well-off.
Last week, he was named in the New Year’s Honours list and knighted for “political and public service”, sparking uproar.
That has now manifested itself in hundreds of thousands of signatures objecting to his knighthood.
Psychiatrist Mona Kamal said on the Change.org petition blurb that Sir Iain “was responsible for some of the cruellest, most extreme welfare reforms this country has ever seen”.
The Labour Party activist, who has been pictured with leader Jeremy Corbyn, said she has witnessed people driven to panic attacks and depressive illness “over the prospect of losing their welfare payments”.
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“This has only intensified with the chaos and uncertainty of Universal Credit, a system known to be causing hardship to millions and for which Iain Duncan Smith is again culpable.”
She added “the fact that Iain Duncan Smith, the individual responsible and the architect of such misery, is to receive the honour of a knighthood is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable individuals across this country who are suffering as a result of his policies and to those who have tragically lost loved ones as a direct result”.
She demanded: “He must not be knighted.”
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The petition was set to hit 200,000 signatures on Monday afternoon, just three days after it was set up.
Yahoo News UK has approached Sir Iain’s office for comment.
