To keep up with Rochdale news sign up to the MyRochdale newsletter here Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith would have been stripped of their knighthoods had their vile sex crimes had been exposed in their lifetimes, the Honours Forfeiture Committee has said.
Knighthoods and other honours can only be held by a living person and fall away after their death, so cannot be removed posthumously.
But the government committee has now introduced a new policy to acknowledge when the holder of an honour has been seriously discredited.
Smith, the former Rochdale MP accused of abusing young boys at care homes in the town, and Savile, who was exposed as a proliflic sex offender following his death in 2011, are the first subjects of the new policy. READ MORE:
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk