‘Stop colleges taking tainted Mosley funds’
AN OXFORD don said his university took “tainted and dirty money” in a storm over “fascist” donations from Sir Oswald Mosley’s family.
Professor Lawrence Goldman spoke yesterday after both Oxford and London universities accepted at least £15million in handouts.
He said Oxford did not need cash from charities linked to notorious 1930s British Union of Fascists founder Sir Oswald Mosley and his son, the late Formula 1 boss Max.
Prof Goldman said: “I don’t really buy the argument that because you can do some good in Oxford, you should just continue to hold on to what is essentially tainted and dirty money.”
He said the Government should step in if universities did not follow the “moral principles most British people would expect”.
The cash came from the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust set up by Max, reportedly with money inherited from his anti-Semitic father.
Max, who died at 81 in May, later backed his father’s far-Right Union Movement. In 1961 he was linked to an election pamphlet accusing “coloured immigrants” of spreading venereal disease.
Oxford’s St Peter’s College, where Prof Goldman is a history fellow, and Lady Margaret Hall have accepted more than £12million since 2017. London’s Imperial College took £2.5million and the city’s University College £500,000.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism urged Oxford to “think hard” about accepting a donation from the family’s trust.
Oxford University said the donation passed a “robust, independent process” which considered “legal, ethical and reputational issues”.