Professor quits Oxford after claiming donor backed Trump

AN OXFORD professor has resigned from his role after claiming one of the university’s wealthy donors is a supporter of Donald Trump.

Swedish academic Bo Rothstein, who was professor of government and public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, alleged the school’s namesake had made a substantial donation to the Trump campaign.

Ussr-born Sir Leonard Blavatnik, who is Britain’s richest man, provided £75million of financial backing to the university to build the school.

Prof Rothstein said in a resignation letter: “As I see it, Donald Trump’s policies are also antithetical to the goal of the Blavatnik School of Government, which aims to improve the quality of government and public policymaking worldwide, so that citizens can enjoy more secure and more fulfilled lives.”

The letter seen by The Guardian added: “Mr Blavatnik’s decision to support Donald Trump makes it impossible for me to continue at the Blavatnik School of Government.”

But a spokesman for Sir Leonard said neither he nor his company, Access Industries, had never donated to President Trump or his campaign.

Sir Leonard has made donations to politicians from both US parties according to records, from Joe Biden, the former vice president, to Ben Sasse, a Republican senator.

The university said it was “unclear” why Prof Rothstein would resign over any political donations made by Sir Leonard, who has a personal fortune of £15.9billion, given he had made no attempt to influence the school’s academic agenda.

The industrialist’s donation was criticised at the time as a sign of the university “selling its reputation and prestige to Putin’s associates” in a letter to The Guardian coordinated by Ilya Zaslavskiy, a former Russian oil company employee and Oxford graduate who ran Moscow’s Oxford alumni association.