Lord Ranger challenges CBE revocation in UK High Court

Britain's PM Keir Starmer (AP)

LONDON: British Indian Tory peer Lord Ranger has challenged the revocation of his CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the high court here. It is the first time anyone has ever taken the UK govt to court over their chivalric honour being revoked. The multi-millionaire businessman, founder of shipping firm Sun Mark, brought legal action against UK PM Keir Starmer in the administrative court on Thursday, saying the decision to strip him of his CBE was unlawful and should be quashed. The decision to revoke his CBE was taken by King Charles, on the advice of Starmer in Oct 2024 following a decision of the “Honours Forfeiture Committee” which determined that Ranger had “brought the honours system into disrepute” for various tweets and public comments he had made. Tom Hickman KC, representing Ranger, said that in revoking the CBE, the PM relied on allegations that were never put to Ranger. In addition “personal disputes” were used, even though that goes against the committee’s guidelines and the decision was taken without waiting for the outcome of a libel claim made by Sikhs for Justice. He also said it was contrary to Ranger’s Article 10 ECHR freedom of expression rights. He pointed out that forfeiture has “serious reputational consequences”. Mrs Justice Lieven appeared to sympathise with this, saying “the impact of a revocation decision is really damaging”. Starmer’s barrister, Christopher Knight KC, argued that the exercise of the prerogative power to remove an honours is “entirely non-justiciable” and called for the claim to be dismissed. “Exercises of prerogative power are non-justiciable where they are beyond the constitutional competence of the courts because they rest on moral, ethical, and political considerations rather than legal standards,” he said, citing as an example “considering whether the claimant’s comments towards the Sikh and Pakistani communities were inconsistent with a CBE that was awarded for services to community cohesion”. Judgment as to whether the case is justiciable will be handed down first, at a later date.