TONY Abbott might have hoped that the furore over his choice to knight Prince Philip had died down by now, but the chorus of condemnation continues two days after the announcement.

The Prime Minister’s decision to bestow an Australian knighthood on the Duke of Edinburgh has attracted worldwide ridicule and triggered harsh criticism over Mr Abbott’s political judgment.

This morning, some of Mr Abbott’s strongest supporters in the media and in his partyroom have deserted him.

The coverage of Mr Abbott’s “captain’s call” to honour the Queen’s 93-year-old husband has been universally negative, with virtually all of the country’s most influential media outlets knocking the idea.

Mr Abbott defended his decision to knight Prince Philip at a press conference this morning, saying he accepts that it was a “contentious decision”.

He said Prince Philip had been a “great contributor” to Australia, especially through the Duke of Edinburgh youth award.

The PM said he had only consulted with the chairman of the Council of the Order of Australia and the Governor-General before honouring Prince Philip. He admitted he did not consult his chief of staff, Peta Credlin.

“I did what I thought was appropriate,” he said. “I stand by (the decision), but obviously there are some lessons in these things ... there does need to be wider consultation about these awards in the future.

“In the end, this is my call. I accept that this has been a distraction for the government over the past couple of days.

“I accept that people have a right to question my decisions. I am the Prime Minister of a robust democracy. We would not be the country that we are if the prime minister’s decisions were somehow beyond question.

“Everything I do is open to question, I respect people’s right to disagree with me on this and I take it on the chin.”

The unfavourable press over the decision has fed into a backbench revolt, with furious MPs expressing their anguish over Mr Abbott’s out-of-touch decisions and leadership style.

Even some of Mr Abbott’s most dependable friends in the media have also rounded against him.

Daily Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine, who was a strong advocate of Mr Abbott over Labor’s Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard, has today slammed the knighthood as a “crazy idea”.

“Tony Abbott’s gonging of Prince Philip makes no political sense. It shows Gillardesque poor judgment. Honestly,” Devine writes.

“In one neat image, the wacky self-indulgence chrysalises all the disquiet about the Prime Minister since he took office 16 months ago … the universal condemnation of his ‘captain’s call’ of an Australia Day knighthood for the Queen’s husband might finally be the jolt that makes the Prime Minister realise he is facing an existential political challenge.

“When we’re still in January of the year in which he was supposed to have pushed the reset button, and there are rumbles from his party about changing leaders, you know there’s a problem.”

The Australian’s opinion pages, have also smashed Mr Abbott left, right and centre. In one opinion piece, they mock the Australian order of knights and dames as “the official Bunyip aristocracy”.

Conservative commentator Janet Albrechtsen branded the knighthood as one “heck of an own goal”.

“The eternal lesson of politics is that people can hate you, even distrust you, but when people, apart from your own usual critics, start to ridicule you, it’s difficult to recover,” Albrechtsen writes.

The Liberals also likely choked on their cornflakes this morning as they wake to this headline on The Oz’s editorial: “Tony Abbott is in office but is he prime minister?”

“The decision to turn a distant duke into a knight Down Under suggests a prime minister who is tone deaf or, worse, complacent in his power to push through a personal preference indifferent to the fact that it is bound to enrage and bewilder many,” the editorial states.

The piece also brands the knighthood decision as a “first-rate farce” and includes the line “Mr Abbott’s unpopularity is an ingrained political fact”.

Libs must wonder who can help a PM apparently determined to be seen as a joke. #jokeknighthood — LaurieOakes (@LaurieOakes) January 25, 2015

@sprocket___ Abbott knighthood a joke and embarrassment. Time to scrap all honours everywhere, including UK. — Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) January 27, 2015

Duke should not be a knight of our realm http://t.co/1KHBiY5wCZ — Malcolm Fraser (@MalcolmFraser12) January 26, 2015

But it’s not just the media that has turned on Mr Abbott.

In an extraordinary move, the Queensland Liberal Premier Campbell Newman has joined the chorus of derision.

“It was a real bolt from the blue. I disagree with it,” Mr Newman said yesterday, as he fought to hang onto government and his marginal seat of Ashgrove ahead of Saturday’s state election.

Former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett said the Abbott gaffe had diverted attention from Mr Newman’s policies in the dying days of campaigning, The Australian reports.

Mr Abbott has been considered electoral poison for the Queensland LNP’s re-election chances, and he is yet to appear on the campaign trail.

However, the PM has dismissed the claim, telling reporters today that he was “very conscious of the fact that Campbell wants to run his own race”.

Federal Coalition MPs have also offered scant praise for the knighthood idea.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann dodged questions about the knighthood yesterday, and the silence on the topic has been deafening from the government’s other heavy hitters Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Joe Hockey.

However, there has been measured support from some of his other cabinet colleagues.

Defence Minister Kevin Andrews supported the knighthood, saying Prince Philip’s service to the public had been “phenomenal”, while Senator Michaelia Cash said the duke was “extremely deserving” of the honour.

But many more backbenchers have openly criticised the idea, which is generally forbidden for the sake of loyalty.

Queensland LNP MP Andrew Laming said the idea of knights and dames was “anachronistic” and “caused an enormous amount of confusion about what the issues are”.

NSW Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce stopped short of supporting the idea but said “I don’t think the world is going to collapse around our ears because of this”.

Concerns about Mr Abbott’s political judgment and poor polling results are expected to be raised at the first Coalition partyroom meeting of the year in Canberra early next month.

The PM is also likely to face tough questions from the media on Monday when he fronts up give the National Press Club’s keynote speech.

Parliament resumes on February 9.