Johnson ‘judgment error’ on Young costs him universities job
JO JOHNSON lost his job as universities minister following the botched appointment of Toby Young to the new higher education watchdog.
Mr Johnson was moved to transport minister a day after defending Mr Young, amid mounting criticism from MPS about his suitability for the role, including prominent Tories.
On Monday afternoon, Mr Johnson praised Mr Young in the Commons as “an eloquent advocate of free speech” but that evening the Office for Students (OFS) informed its board members that Mr Young had resigned.
Mr Young said that his appointment had “become a distraction” adding that he apologised “unreservedly” for his offensive remarks.
Mr Young, a journalist and free schools pioneer, faced a furious backlash after critics unearthed lewd comments about women he had posted on social media, which he has since deleted. His derogatory remarks in articles about working-class students and the disabled were also highlighted by Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the education select committee.
In an article for The Spectator magazine, Mr Young wrote: “The caricature drawn of me in the last seven days, particularly on social media, has been unrecognisable to anyone who knows me. I am a passionate supporter of inclusion and helping the most disadvantaged, as I hope my track record of setting up and supporting new schools demonstrates.
“But some of the things I said before I got involved in education, when I was a journalistic provocateur, were either ill-judged or just plain wrong – and I unreservedly apologise.” The OFS, which is designed to ensure students get value for money and are treated fairly, was set up as part of Mr Johnson’s reforms to higher education.
Following Downing Street’s confirmation of his move away from the universities brief, Lucy Powell, the Labour MP, said that it had become “unsustainable” for Mr Johnson to remain in post “given [the] Toby Young debacle”.
Gordon Marsden, the shadow universities minister, said Mr Johnson paid the “price” for a “huge judgment error”.
Yesterday Viscount Younger of Leckie, the Government’s higher education spokesman, told the Lords that when Mr Young was appointed to the OFS, officials were unaware about his “obnoxious” tweets”.
Mr Johnson said it has been an “honour” to serve as universities and science minister, adding that they are “our greatest national asset and the best thing about this country”.
The appointment of the journalist Toby Young to the new university regulator, the Office for Students, was always a controversial move. It was intended to be. Mr Young, whose interest in education is demonstrated by the work he has done setting up and promoting free schools, was to have been on the board for a reason. He is a stalwart champion of free speech who could be expected to challenge the worrying trend at universities to shut down debate on matters deemed “inappropriate”.
It is a rich irony that he has been undone by the very problem he might have been in a position to remedy. A campaign by Left-wingers to get him removed was fuelled by the discovery of some injudicious, jokey and sometimes tasteless remarks he had made on Twitter some years ago.
They date, he said, from when he was “a journalistic provocateur” and were ill-judged and wrong. But that is all they were. They were blown out of all proportion principally as a means of getting a Right-winger away from what the Left regards as its territory, the education of our children. Like some 17th-century heretic, Mr Young was forced to recant and confess his “crimes” before being metaphorically burnt at the digital stake.
These tactics are more prevalent on the Left, where those who err like Mr Young, or worse, with anti-semitic or sexually explicit comments, are invariably forgiven. Where is the hue and cry from Labour and its fellow travellers over the treatment of Esther Mcvey, the new Cabinet minister targeted in a vicious hate campaign by the very people who denounced Mr Young for much less. The stench of hypocrisy is overpowering.