Australia’s former prime minister, Tony Abbott, says he still stands by appointing knights and dames, despite regretting awarding Prince Philip the honour.
Mr Abbott, a London-born staunch monarchist, was heavily criticised for reintroducing the titles in 2015, almost three decades after they were abolished in Australia.
His decision to award the Queen’s husband a knighthood was widely ridiculed across Australia, even among Mr Abbott’s supporters. He was ousted as leader shortly afterwards in favour of Macolm Turnbull, a republican.
In his first major interview since losing his parliamentary seat this year, Mr Abbott told The Australian the decision had caused him "a lot of grief".
But he said he remains strongly in favour of reinstating the titles, saying: "If we are going to have an honours system (then) I think that at the apex of the system we should have knights and dames."
AFP
He added that the decision to bestow an honour shouldn’t have been "the prime minister’s personal pick, it should have been the Council of the Order of Australia which did it"
The 61-year-old also suggested he could make a return to politics, saying that he had "mostly" forgiven his former allies who turned against him.
However he made it clear he still blames Mr Turnbull for losing his post as prime minister, saying: "We got a lot done in two years but look, my problem was that I had one colleague who was never happy to be someone else’s minister.
"It wasn’t that we had a divided government. It was more that there was one person who was determined to get to the top by hook or by crook. Malcolm always thought it was his destiny to be prime minister, and I happened to be the obstacle to that, and so he dealt with me as best he could".
Of returning to the party’s leadership, he said: "If the Liberal Party ever wanted me to do that, I would be more than happy to consider it, but I find it difficult to imagine the circumstances that they would want me. I’m not ruling it out but I’m not expecting it to happen".