Following the decision by Paula Vennels to hand her CBE in after a massive social media storm backed by an online petition signed by over one million outraged citizens, similar calls are being made for Sir Keir Starmer to hand back his Knighthood. 'This isn't politically motivated,' insisted one poster on Twitter whose account had been live for nearly three hours and had zero followers. Similar posts were made by accounts that appeared so new they gleamed. 'Nah, not political, he was the Director of Public Prosecutions when the Post Office made their private prosecutions,' insisted another.
Although the not politically-motivated claim appears to be gaining traction, there appears to be zero support to strip Sir David Calvert-Smith (DPP 1998 - 2003) of his Knighthood, nor for Lord Ken MacDonald (DPP 2003 - 2008) to be stripped of his Peerage. Additionally, Dame Alison Saunders, the funnier half of the French and Saunders double act (DPP 2013 - 2018) isn't being asked to hand her ermine robe back and nor is Sir Max (Harry) Hill (DPP 2018 - 2023 being asked to hand his Knighthood back (but is frequently asked to refrain from his various TV programmes such as Harry Hill's TV burp).
A government spokesman said the calls for stripping the former DPP of his Knighthood wasn't political and explained the absence of calls for any of the other four DPPs that span the Horizon debacle timeline on the simple fact that none of the other DPPs had, to their knowledge, butchered puppies or personally freed mass murderers. 'If he will go around jailing innocent people while providing his skills for free for people anyone can see are guilty, then he deserves everything the public can be made to throw at him,' said the spokesman.