Ex-editor at rightwing website Breibart will address the prestigious university debating society on 7 June

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Sebastian Gorka, a former aide to Donald Trump and an ex-editor at rightwing website Breitbart, has been invited to speak at the Oxford Union, it was announced on Sunday.

Gorka, a hardliner on immigration and terrorism, is scheduled to address the university debating society on 7 June.

The Hungarian American intelligence analyst resigned as a White House foreign policy adviser in August last year amid pressure over allegations of links to Hungarian far-right groups.

In a press release on Sunday, the Oxford Union, which is mainly run by students, said Gorka had risen to “prominence as deputy assistant to President Trump and a committed defender of the president’s foreign policy initiatives”.

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It added that he resigned becasue he “believed that White House officials had begun to undermine the ‘Make America Great Again’ platform”.

Gorka, a former ex-Fox News counter-terrorism analyst, had initially been asked by the Trump administration to sit on the short-lived strategic initiatives group, a panel created by Steve Bannon. Gorka was unable to get clearance for the national security council after he was charged in 2016 with carrying a weapon at Ronald Reagan airport in Washington.

Gorka, who is in his late 40s, was born in London to Hungarian parents who had fled during the country’s 1956 failed anti-Soviet revolution. His wearing of a medal awarded to his father by the Hungarian group Vitezi Rend – or Order of Heroes – at Trump’s inaugural ball raised eyebrows, as the group, which was anti-Soviet, has been linked by some to Nazi colluders.

Gorka later reportedly defended wearing the medal. He said it was in memory of his family and what they suffered “under the Nazis and under the communists”.

His links to the Vitezi Rend as well as other ties to the Hungarian right had come under scrutiny before his White House departure. Prior to immigrating to the United States, Gorka had mounted an unsuccessful political career in Hungary and, in doing so, once expressed support for a far-right militia in the country.

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The Oxford Union was founded in 1823 and has hosted prominent political and otherwise prominent figures over the years, including Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa and former US presidents Jimmy Carter, Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Some of its guests, including OJ Simpson, have prompted controversy for being invited.

