Toby Young Quits Office For Students Regulator With Apology For Sexist Tweets And Remarks
Toby Young has quit the Office for Students regulator with an apology for sexist and other offensive remarks he made in the past.
The controversial author and Free Schools founder caved to a torrent of criticism as he announced on the Spectator magazine’s blog that he would not take up the post on the watchdog.
A petition signed by more than 200,000 people demanded he should not be given the post because of a string of sexist Tweets and controversial articles he had written in the past.
Theresa May had said on Sunday that she was ‘not impressed’ by remarks Young had made, but had insisted he should be given a second chance. He would not remain in the post if he repeated his offensive views, she had added.
Yet only yesterday, ministers defended him in the Commons, even handing out ‘lines to take’ to Tory MPs, accusing Labour of ‘hypocrisy’ over his appointment.
Last week Young said he regrets “politically incorrect” and “sophomoric” comments on social media – including references to the size of women’s breasts – and has deleted up to 40,000 tweets he has posted since 2009.
Critics have also highlighted his attitude to working class students, comments about “inclusivity” in a Spectator column in 2012, and remarks aimed at gay people.
Young announced his shock decision in a pre-dawn blogpost on the Spectator’s Coffee House website on Tuesday morning.
“The caricature drawn on me in the past seven days has been unrecognizable,” he wrote.
But he admitted: “Some of things I said were ill-judged or just plain wrong and I apologise.”
Yesterday, HuffPost asked the PM’s official spokesman if May would take action if further allegations about Young’s conduct, rather than just his views, were revealed. No.10 said the PM had made her views clear.
There was speculation that Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom had had a conversation with the PM about Young.
But the Downing Street spokesman, asked about the claims, said he was ‘not aware’ of any discussion of the matter between the pair on Monday morning before the reshuffle.
Yesterday, Universities Minister Jo Johnson – whose brother Boris was Editor of the Spectator when many of Young’s articles were published – defended him.
Johnson declared “we want to encourage Mr Young to develop the best sides of his personality”, but said that his experience as founder of West London free school and director of the New Schools Network would be important for the new universities regulator.
But disabled Tory MP Rob Halfon, who chairs the Education Select Committee, called Young’s remarks’ about the political correctness of wheelchair ramps in schools “dark and dangerous”.
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