Queen strips Harvey Weinstein of CBE following his sex offence conviction

Watch: Queen Elizabeth II Strips Harvey Weinstein of Royal Honor Amid Scandal

The Queen has stripped Harvey Weinstein of his honourary CBE in wake of his convictions for sex offences.

A notice published in The Gazette, the official record of the UK, indicated Weinstein would lose the title.

The notice said: “The Queen has directed that the appointment of Harvey Weinstein to be an Honorary Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated 29 January 2004, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order.”

Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment, assault and rape by several women, with the first reports emerging in October 2017.

He was arrested the following year but the matter did not come to trial until January 2020.

Weinstein was found guilty by a jury on two offences, one of criminal sexual assault and another of rape. However he was found not guilty of predatory sexual assault, which would have carried a life sentence.

He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Weinstein was awarded the honourary CBE in 2004, for his “outstanding contribution” to the British film industry.

When he was convicted by jury in New York earlier this year, there were calls by several senior UK figures to strip him of the honour.

Read more: Will Barbados removing the Queen as head of state trigger other countries to do the same?

In February Labour MP Dawn Butler said: “The Government needs to act, fast.

“Weinstein should have been stripped of his honours a long time ago, but now he’s been found guilty by the courts, there’s no excuse. It’s shameful – and more importantly, it’s insulting to his victims.”

Layla Moran, former Lib Dem leadership candidate, said: “Weinstein should be immediately stripped of his CBE: Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

“We should not honour him.”

Announcing his CBE in 2004, Weinstein said at the time: “My life and my career have been greatly influenced and enriched by great British film-makers and authors and so I am especially honoured and humbled to be receiving the CBE.”

While he was jailed in New York, prosecutors in Los Angeles have filed a request to extradite Weinstein, in a bid to try him on five counts of sexual assault in California.

The Honours Forfeiture Committee debates whether an award should be removed, but the Queen has final say.

Honours are considered to last the lifetime of the recipient, so they cannot be stripped posthumously.

Several other people are named in Friday’s Gazette as having their honours removed.

According to the committee those who forfeit their honours “will be asked to return their insignia to Buckingham Palace and can no longer make any reference to their having an honour in the future. This would include use of the honour post-nominals on websites, publications or business cards.”