Stop Demand founder and barrister Denise Ritchie told
Checkpoint under the public opinion, it would be considered wrong for him to hold a royal honour under these circumstances. There was always the alternative for the prime minister s office to not take any steps until later in the month when he is sentenced, so we wanted to pre-empt that [with a statement]. Given his guilty plea, we thought the process should be relatively straightforward and there was no reason for the process [of removing his knighthood] not to begin immediately, so well done to the PM, it was a decisive step forward.