Britain's Queen Elizabeth has stripped Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe of an honorary knighthood awarded in 1994, the foreign ministry said today.
"This action has been taken as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in Zimbabwe over which President Mugabe has presided," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Earlier in the House of Commons, the British prime minister Gordon Brown promised tougher sanctions against against specific members of the Zimbabwean government. "We are preparing intensified sanctions, financial and travel sanctions, against named members of the Mugabe regime," Mr Brown said.
President Mugabe was awarded the honorary knighthood in 1994
Mr Brown also said firms that were helping the regime should “reconsider their position now” and also pledged to name and shame the “criminal cabal” surrounding Mr Mugabe.
Meanwhile, the governing body of cricket in Britain has announced that it is suspending all bilateral arrangements with Zimbabwe cricket and cancelled its 2009 tour.
In a statement, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said it was following the example of South Africa and suspending all bilateral links with Zimbabwe.
"The ECB deplores the position in Zimbabwe and, like Cricket South Africa, finds this untenable," the statement read. "Therefore all bilateral arrangements are suspended with Zimbabwe Cricket with immediate effect.
"The government has written to the ECB today and has made a clear instruction that Zimbabwe's bilateral tour scheduled under the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2009 should be cancelled.