The “Dishonour List” protest
A senior Tory hands back his CBE in protest over David Cameron’s “Dishonour List” of rewards for cronies and donors. Major Narindar Saroop, 87, told the Evening Standard, Mr Cameron’s controversial resignation list brought the entire system into “disrepute” by handing off peerages, knighthoods, and other awards to close chums and party backers.
The former cavalry officer, who made history in 1979, as the first Asian to stand for Parliament as a Tory from Greenwich. Major Saroop said, “Everyone I have spoken to who also has a decoration feels much the same way. They may not take the same action I am taking but there is a great deal of disenchantment about the way that the former Prime Minister has behaved.”
Major Saroop was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1982 on Margaret Thatcher’s recommendation. However on the day Mr Cameron’s awards list was revealed, he wrote to the Cabinet Office asking for the correct procedure to return the cherished award in protest.
In a letter to the honours section at St James’s Palace, Major Saroop wrote, “There is little wrong with our honours system. It is the demeaning contempt for it as practised by Blair and Cameron which has led to such disenchantment about an otherwise honourable institution. Mr Cameron, often with some pride, indicated that he was the heir to Blair. This is now fully vindicated by his recent ‘Dishonour List’, which runs close, possibly even overtaking, the lists of Lloyd George and of Harold Wilson’s Lavender List.”
Retiring from the Army in 1952, Major Saroop is a member of the Beefsteak Club, the Cavalry and Guards Club and the Royal Bombay Yacht Club. After an illustrious career in the military and in international business, Major Saroop became a Kensington & Chelsea councillor and served as an adviser to charities including Oxfam and Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund. He was the first chairman of the UK Anglo Asian Conservative Society and vice-chair of the party’s International Office.
He admitted, “It is a futile cavalry charge but I felt I had to make a point. It’s obviously a wrench to return my CBE. I was extremely proud to be awarded it.”
Mr Cameron’s resignation list caused an uproar by giving awards to 46 people including at least three Tory donors along with former Downing Street aides and pro-EU campaigners. It gave 13 new peerages, including donors Jitesh Gadhia, an investment banker, and Andrew Fraser, a party treasurer.
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader said, “The fact that the first member of the Asian community to stand for Parliament as a Conservative has decided to return his honour to the Palace tells you everything you need to know about David Cameron’s shameful resignation honours list.”
A spokesman for the former Prime Minister declined to respond to the criticism.
