Senior Labour figures have urged the prime minister to remove the journalist and free schools advocate Toby Young from the board of the new higher education watchdog, accusing him of virulent misogyny.

Dawn Butler, the shadow women and equalities minister, and Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, expressed concerns about Young’s “history of homophobia, misogyny and indifference to the rights of people with disabilities” in a letter to Theresa May on Friday.

“The virulence of Mr Young’s misogyny is disturbing; furthermore, he has offered no apology for his remarks,” they wrote. “Instead, Mr Young has said that it would be a ‘shame if people who have said controversial things in the past, or who hold heterodox opinions, are prohibited from serving on public bodies’.”

They said Young claimed to be a “supporter of women’s rights and LGBT rights” after coming under fire this week, but that his “historical comments beg to differ”.

The letter comes a day after a major teachers’ union articulated its own misgivings about Young’s suitability to serve on the board of the Office for Students (OfS), given his “sexist and homophobic comments”. It increases pressure on the government after widespread criticism of the decision by Justine Greening, the education secretary, to appoint Young on Monday.

Critics of Young’s appointment highlighted the numerous sexually charged comments the journalist has made in public about a female former colleague, as well as television presenters, politicians and other women, as evidence of his unsuitability for a position the Department for Education (DfE) has said demands high standards of personal conduct.

Young has also caused controversy with his support for “progressive eugenics” in education and his disdain for the use of wheelchair ramps in schools. He publicly said George Clooney was “as queer as a coot”.

Many of the remarks for which Young has been criticised were made on Twitter and, two days after his appointment, he appeared to have deleted about 40,000 of his posts on the site.

In a separate letter to be delivered to Greening on Friday afternoon, the Liberal Democrats’ education spokesman in the Lords, Lord Storey, said he would note that the Nolan principles – by which OfS board members and other public servants are expected to abide – required openness. “But Mr Young has certainly breached this principle by deleting thousands of entries on his Twitter account, many of them grossly offensive and, on occasion, obscene,” a draft of the letter said.

It also emerged that the DfE exaggerated Young’s qualifications when defending his appointment this week. Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, said he was denied an interview for the job despite holding two senior positions within the higher education sector.

Senior government figures have publicly defended the education secretary’s decision to appoint Young, including Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, who tweeted his support on Wednesday.

Ridiculous outcry over Toby Young. He will bring independence, rigour and caustic wit. Ideal man for job — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 3, 2018

His cabinet colleague Michael Gove agreed. “Quite right too – how many of Toby Young’s critics have worked night and day to provide great state schools for children of every background?” the environment secretary tweeted.

In their letter on Friday, Butler and Rayner said Young had portrayed many of the concerns about him as “confected outrage” motivated by his conservatism and his support for Brexit.



“This is an irresponsible attitude from someone who has already made offensive remarks,” they told May. “Instead of apologising for causing offence, Mr Young has instead indulged in gaslighting many of those who have objected; rounding on them and questioning their sanity. This is not evidence of what the foreign secretary termed ‘caustic wit’, it is simply misogyny.”

Butler and Rayner told May: “When you stood outside Downing Street in the summer of 2016, you claimed that you wanted to build a country that works for everyone. In the autumn of that year, you talked of a ‘truly meritocratic country’. The appointment of someone like Mr Young stands in contrast.”

They added: “We sincerely hope you will reconsider this appointment and reassure the country that you are not on the side of bigotry and cronyism.”

Young did not respond to a request for comment. The 54-year-old previously said he regretted those of his comments that were “sophomoric and silly”. But he said some had been “deliberately misinterpreted to try and paint me as a caricature of a heartless Tory toff”.



He acknowledged a lack of experience within the higher education sector but insisted he had other qualifications, including his work with free schools, his efforts to help people from schools that send few pupils to the best universities and his position as a Fulbright commissioner.

“But I am a Tory, obviously, and for some people that alone is enough to disqualify me from serving on the OfS’s board. That’s plainly nonsense. If the OfS is to do its job properly it should include people from both sides of the political divide, left and right,” he said.

A spokesman for No 10 said the letters had been received and May would respond in due course. He did not respond when asked if the prime minister supported Young’s appointment.



The DfE has not commented, though it has repeatedly cited Young’s “diverse experience” as evidence of his suitability for the role.