May offers race-row academic his old job back after false allegations
How high priest of the Right triggered witch-hunt
The Mail, November 9, 2018
THERESA May has offered to reinstate philosopher Sir Roger Scruton as a Government adviser after he was sacked over false claims he made anti-Semitic and Islamophobic remarks.
In one of her last acts as Prime Minister, she invited Sir Roger to return to his job advising ministers on how to build better homes.
The dramatic U-turn comes after the Government apologised for firing him during what Sir Roger, 75, called a ‘witch-hunt of people on the Right’. The Conservative intellectual and writer was dismissed from his post with the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission by Housing Minister James Brokenshire in April.
It came after allegedly anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments were attributed to him which later turned out to be hand-picked and carefully-edited quotes. Sir Roger said he faced the ‘complete destruction’ of his ‘career, identity and personality’ after an interview with the Left-wing New Statesman magazine.
It quoted him as saying there was a ‘[George] Soros empire in Hungary’ – referring to the Jewish billionaire investor. But crucially the magazine omitted to say he added: ‘It’s not necessarily an empire of Jews – that’s such nonsense.’
The New Statesman quoted him as saying: ‘Each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one.’ But it later acknowledged his target was the Chinese Communist Party, not the Chinese people themselves, as it had suggested.
Sir Roger was lambasted for reportedly saying Islamophobia was a ‘propaganda word’.
It later became clear he had also said: ‘Muslims who settle into the Meccan way of life are obviously perfect citizens. They have the inner serenity that the citizen should have. We ought to learn to appreciate that – and encourage it.’
When Sir Roger was sacked by the Government days later, New Statesman deputy editor George Eaton, who wrote the article, celebrated by posting a picture of himself with a bottle of a champagne on Instagram. The photo was captioned: ‘The feeling when you get Rightwing racist and homophobe Roger Scruton sacked as a Tory Government adviser.’
The New Statesman was forced to apologise after a leaked tape recording of the interview showed how his comments had been taken out of context. The magazine admitted its coverage ‘did not accurately represent Sir Roger’s views’. Mr Eaton has reportedly been demoted.
Conservative MPs who joined the rush to condemn Sir Roger were forced to retract their comments. The philosopher said his sacking was part of a wider programme of attacking Right-wing intellectuals.
He denounced the way he was treated by Mrs May, Mr Brokenshire, the Tory Party and the media. He insisted: ‘We get identified, caricatured and demonised – and made to look as though we are some kind of sinister, fascist, racist kind of people. As soon as the Conservative Party sees one of us being demonised they rush to disassociate themselves from us.’
Sir Roger said he was ‘particularly distressed‘ by the behaviour of Mr Brokenshire, adding: ‘He sacked me on the strength of the article without asking me whether it accurately represented anything that I had said.’ As a longstanding Tory, he was ‘astonished’ at how quickly No10 and the party had disowned him.
Mr Brokenshire issued a public apology to Sir Roger last week, saying: ‘I regret that the decision to remove you from your leadership role was taken in the way that it was.
‘I am sorry – especially as it was based on a clearly partial report of your thoughts.’
Mr Brokenshire said he had ‘huge respect’ for Sir Roger’s work. He told him: ‘I would like to invite you to meet to discuss this work and what part you might be prepared to play in advancing this important agenda which we both care about so much.’
Sir Roger did not pursue legal action against the New Statesman, but later secured an apology from the magazine and worked with it on publishing a clarified version of his quotes on China and Hungary.
The Mail told last year how Sir Roger faced a backlash from the Left after his appointment to the commission.
‘Comments taken out of context’