Gary Neville has railed against the decision to award Gavin Williamson a knighthood, claiming the decision has been made as the twice-sacked minister "knows where the skeletons are".
Williamson was dismissed as Theresa May 's Defence Secretary and lost his place in Boris Johnson 's Cabinet in September 2021 after a summer of coronavirus exam havoc the previous year.
Nonetheless, Downing Street announced he will be knighted in a statement on Thursday which read: "The Queen has been pleased to approve that the honour of Knighthood be conferred upon The Rt. Hon. Gavin Williamson CBE MP."
The move to make the senior Conservative a knight has proved a divisive one and former Manchester United defender Neville was among many to hit out at the decision on social media.
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He took to Twitter to respond to the breaking news by writing "FFS" before adding: "Get appointed. C*** it up. Know where the skeletons are. Resign. Arise Sir..."
Neville followed this up by sharing a number of other tweets which derided the decision and accused the Prime Minister of making Williamson a sir in order to keep him on side.
Johnson has faced a wave of criticism in recent months over numerous 'Partygate' scandals relating to social events held at No. 10 while the United Kingdom was under strict Covid-19 regulations.
As exclusively reported by the Mirror last December, Williamson held a party in the lead-up to Christmas in 2020 at the Department of Education.
He was also in the headlines for the wrong reasons last September after an embarrassing gaffe which saw him mix up England footballer Marcus Rashford and England rugby player Maro Itoje.
Williamson told the Evening Standard: "We met over Zoom and he seemed incredibly engaged, compassionate and charming but then he had to shoot off.
"I didn't want to be the one that was holding him back from his training."
Williamson believed he had been talking to Rashford, whose tireless campaigning throughout the pandemic saw the government U-turn over free school meals.
In fact, he had been speaking with Itoje, who used his platform to call for millions of children to obtain access to laptops during the lockdown.
Rashford reacted to the blunder in good faith with a crying-laughing emoji on Twitter, adding: "Accent could have been a giveaway."
In contrast, top Labour MP Angela Rayner slammed Williamson, writing: "According to @GavinWilliamson a black man from Wythenshawe who plays football for England looks the same as a black man from North London who plays rugby for England.
"The fact that Gavin Williamson remains in his job is a daily reminder of how mediocre white men rise and rise."
