The award of Australian of the Year in the UK to election guru Lynton Crosby should be revoked because of his work promoting "big tobacco", an opinion piece in a leading British newspaper says.
The 58-year-old received the honour at a gala ceremony at Australia House in London on Saturday night just weeks after he was controversially awarded a knighthood for masterminding the re-election of Britain's Conservative government in May last year.
The gong for the man dubbed the "Wizard of Oz" prompted accusations of political cronyism from the opposition Labour Party and calls in the British media for an overhaul of the honours system.
In an opinion piece in The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday Sir Lynton's track record of working for major tobacco companies was raised as a reason for revoking his Australian of the Year in the UK award.
Writing under the headline "Lynton Crosby, UK Australian of the Year? You Must be Joking", Mike Daube said thousands of Australians work in the UK as doctors, nurses and scientists, "devoting their lives to preventing death and treating the sick".
But he noted the award had gone to a lobbyist whose companies had a long track record of working for "big tobacco" firms such as British American Tobacco and Philip Morris in both Australia and the UK.
"The record is unequivocal. Crosby has lobbied against measures such as plain packaging which aim to prevent uptake of smoking by children and reduce smoking by adults."
Daube wrote that it would be hard to think of a more inappropriate selection for Australian of the Year in the UK.
"Crosby and his tobacco paymasters know that tobacco causes six million deaths around the world each year."
Daube noted that Sir Lynton had been described at Friday night's ceremony as an "inspirational role model" but wrote that he was a role model "only to those who are willing to promote a lethal product".
He said Australia led the world in reducing smoking - tobacco consumption in Australia had fallen more than 18 per cent since plain packaging was introduced three years ago.
"Who knows what the UK Australia Day Foundation Board were thinking when they decided to honour a tobacco lobbyist?
"Did they consider for a nanosecond the kind of signals this award sends out? Their decision is an embarrassment and a disgrace. The award should be revoked."
When asked about his knighthood and Australian in the UK award on Saturday night Sir Lynton said: "Of course you'll always get your critics, you've just got to be confident in your own contribution and satisfied with that and I considered it a great honour."
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