No 10 adviser resigns after storm over views on eugenics and race
‘No place for views he’s expressed’ ‘Rose almost without trace’
A DOWNING Street adviser quit yesterday amid a storm over his controversial remarks on race, eugenics and women.
Andrew Sabisky said he did not want a ‘giant character assassination’ to be a ‘distraction’ for the Government.
The self- styled ‘ super forecaster’, 27, had been drafted into government after Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings advertised for ‘misfits and weirdos’ to work for No 10.
However, over the weekend details of his views emerged from past online comments, including a suggestion that black people had lower IQs than whites.
He had also called for compulsory contraception to prevent the ‘creation of a permanent underclass’ and labelled welfare claimants as ‘less conscientious and agreeable than the average person’.
Amid calls to sack Mr Sabisky yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman had earlier refused to say whether Mr Johnson supported the views, saying in a tense briefing: ‘The Prime Minister’s views on a range of subjects are well publicised and documented.’
Politicians of all hues had reacted with astonishment, with Labour chairman Ian Lavery saying it was ‘ disgusting’ No 10 had failed to condemn Mr Sabisky’s comments and Tory MP Caroline Noakes tweeting: ‘ Cannot believe No 10 has refused to comment on Andrew Sabisky ... must be no place in government for the views he’s expressed.’
Yesterday evening Mr Sabisky announced his resignation on Twitter, saying: ‘The media hysteria about my old stuff online is mad but I wanted to help HMG not to be a distraction.
‘Accordingly I’ve decided to resign as a contractor.
‘I know this will disappoint a lot of ppl (people) but I signed up to do real work, not be in the middle of a giant character assassination: if I can’t do the work properly there’s no point, and I have a lot of other things to do with my life.’
The special adviser had been one of the first ‘weirdos and misfits’ to sign up to advise Mr Johnson’s administration last month.
But few could have predicted any would have been quite as strange as Mr Sabisky.
His views on race, intelligence and eugenics – made in 2014 in a blog on Mr Cummings’ website – are incendiary.
He has written that ‘ there are excellent reasons to think the very real racial differences in intelligence are significantly – even mostly – genetic in origin’.
He added: ‘ Eugenics are about selecting ‘‘for’’ good things. Intelligence is largely inherited and it correlates with better outcomes – income, lower mental illness.’
His views on the underclass would not appear to much resonate with Mr Johnson’s belief in compassionate Conservatism.
He wrote: ‘One way to get around problems of unplanned pregnancies creating a permanent underclass would be to legally enforce universal uptake of... contraception at the onset of puberty.’
And he was highly dismissive of women’s sport, saying: ‘I am always straight up in saying that women’s sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to men’s.’
It was also reported last night that Mr Sabisky was behind an online profile giving relationship advice on the Reddit forum, which included claims it was a Christian woman’s ‘duty’ to have sex with her husband. Mr Sabisky, a selfstyled internet ‘super-forecaster’ who rose almost without trace, is – surprisingly – the son of a multimillionaire executive finance director at the Unite union.
Ed Sabisky, a cheerleader for Jeremy Corbyn, was previously a well-remunerated executive with General Motors before becoming a key player at the union which has pumped tens of millions of pounds into Labour’s coffers.
The eldest of six children, Andrew Sabisky grew up in a £4million townhouse in Chelsea, west London, and was largely educated at home by his mother Katrina.
She is the daughter of the late Chris Brasher, the founder of the London Marathon, and famously one of Roger Bannister’s pacemakers when he broke the fourminute mile in 1954.
Mr Sabisky did not go to university but completed courses in educational psychology. And it was through education that he first came to the notice of Mr Cummings – ex- education secretary Michael Gove’s adviser – when he gave a talk at a conference in 2014.