Save The Children Apologises Over Tony Blair Legacy Award

Save the Children can now rescind the award; Blair takes another step towards inevitable war crimes trial along with pals Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Petraeus, Perino, Franks, Feith, Wolfowitz, Gonzalez et al

THE TELEGRAPH
By Ben Riley-Smith
03/03/2015

Save the Children has apologised over its decision to give Tony Blair a global legacy award and admitted it damaged the charity.

Justin Forsyth, the charity’s chief executive, said he was “very sorry” for the supporters and staff upset by the decision and called the issue an “unnecessary distraction”.

Mr Forsyth, a former aide to Mr Blair, also said it would have been “wrong” to give an award to the former Prime Minister for his whole legacy rather than his work in Africa specifically.

The public apology, which came during an interview on BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme, comes after a heated backlash to the award after it was announced in November.

More than 100,000 people signed an online petition calling for the award to be rescinded and around 500 Saved the Children staff members have reportedly backed a similar petition.

War crimes trials pending for both mass-murderers

There was anger over Mr Blair’s decision to take Britain into two Middle East wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths that followed. Questioned about the award on Radio Four, Mr Forsyth said: “I know that many of our supporters and volunteers were very upset and our staff, several of our staff too, and I'm very sorry for that.”

He said the decision had been made by the British charity’s “sister organisation” in America, where Mr Blair did not have the same controversial legacy, and explained the award was only for his Africa work.

“Yes, it was a global legacy award. It was called that. But actually it was an award very, very specifically for Tony Blair's efforts on Africa at two G8 summits at Birmingham and Gleneagles, not his wider legacy.

“And if it had been for his wider legacy I think it would be wrong, but it was for something quite specific that helped Africa and children.

“I'm sorry it's upset so many people. It's not really what we do at Save the Children. 

What we're really doing is on the ground in Syria with the Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone – that's the work we do.

"This has been really an unnecessary distraction. 

I do apologise to those people that it's upset.”

Mr Forsyth admitted the row had “in part” damaged the charity in eyes of some staff but expressed hope people would accept organisations “make mistakes”.

On his Save the Children biography Mr Forsyth says he was recruited to Number 10 by Mr Blair to help work on poverty and climate change and was “one of the driving forces behind the Make Poverty History campaign”.

He then became Gordon Brown's strategic communications and campaigns director before joining Save the Children.

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