Dame Valerie Beral, professor of epidemiology unit at Oxford University, told The Telegraph UCL needed to reconsider the resignation. “He has been drummed out,” she said, “I just think those comments were self-deprecatory. He will have said it as a complete joke. There wasn’t any need for him to resign. UCL should not have been so quick on the phone to him and his wife. I would love to see this whole saga revisited. They should change their minds and refuse now to accept the resignation.”