Fashion designer Katharine Hamnett dumps CBE in bin over UK’s stance on Gaza
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The fashion designer who created the “Choose Love” T-shirt has dumped her CBE in the bin over Britain’s response to the conflict in Gaza.
In a video shared to social media, Katharine Hamnett emerged from her home wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Disgusted to be British”, before dumping her award in a wheelie bin.
“I’m disgusted to be British for our role in genocide in Gaza,” the 76-year-old declares in the short clip shared to her Instagram.
“This is my CBE. It belongs in the dustbin, with Sunak and Starmer,” she adds.
She also urged her followers to “find your MP and tell them you will never vote for them again unless they support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza”.
Hamnett was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year’s honours list, receiving the honour from the late Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
When the Queen died in 2022, Hamnett shared a photo from the ceremony on Instagram captioned: “Elizabeth the Great. RIP.”
The designer is no stranger to high profile political statements. In 1984 she was photographed with Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street wearing a T-shirt that read “58 per cent don’t want Pershing” in protest against nuclear missiles.
She also sent models down the catwalk wearing T-shirts reading: “Stop War. Blair Out” in protest at the Iraq war when Tony Blair was prime minister.
Other T-shirt slogans include: Make Trade Fair, Save The Future and Women Against Wars.
She is arguably best known for designing the Choose Love slogan T-shirts, created as part of a campaign to help refugees.
Hamnett joins a number of other well-known names who have also relinquished their honours.
Last year, The Good Wife actor Alan Cumming said he had returned his OBE after conversations about the role of the monarchy “opened his eyes” to the suffering of indigenous people around the world.
In 2020, Welsh star Michael Sheen revealed he gave back his OBE so he could call for the scrapping of the title Prince of Wales.
In 1969, Beatle John Lennon returned his MBE with a letter to the Queen saying it was “a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts”.
Journalist Jon Snow, comedian John Oliver and poet Benjamin Zephaniah are among those who have turned honours down.
According to the Cabinet Office, it is possible to renounce an honour, but a recipient still holds it until the King agrees to annul it.
As a result, placing a CBE in the bin is only a token gesture until formal action is taken by the monarch.
