Petition to revoke Tony Blair's knighthood passes one million signatures mark

An online petition demanding the removal of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s knighthood has collected over one million signatures. 

The Change.org page was created after the ex-Labour leader was awarded the title in Queen Elizabeth II’s new year honours list. 

Signed by 1,075,214 people as of 10 January, it calls for Blair to be stripped of the knighthood given his responsibility "for causing the deaths of countless innocent, civilian lives".

This refers to his role during the UK's invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as prime minister. 

"Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen," said the petition created by Angus Scott. 

The webpage also said the former premier "should be held accountable for war crimes". 

Scott, who had a small role in the first season of Netflix drama "The Crown", told the BBC: "I thought [the petition] might pick up a few hundred signatures, but obviously it taps into a deep feeling that's pretty obvious around the country."

Blair, British prime minister from 1997 to 2007, ordered UK troops to invade Iraq alongside US forces in 2003. The legal basis of this decision has since been described as "far from satisfactory" in the 2016 Chilcot Inquiry. 

Almost two decades on, the war has left hundreds of thousands of people dead, created millions of refugees and has left Iraq fractured.