Former MP, about whose breasts the free schools advocate tweeted in 2012, says he has long history of misogynistic behaviour

The misogyny row sparked by the appointment of the free schools champion Toby Young to help police standards in higher education has intensified after a former MP, about whose breasts he tweeted, called for him to be sacked.

Pamela Nash, the former Labour MP for Airdrie and Shotts, said Young had not been guilty of a single aberration, but had a long history of misogynistic behaviour, as well as a disdain for working-class people.

“The government should admit that this was an error of judgment and remove him from this post immediately,” she said.

Young has come under fire for a series of tweets and comments in various articles that objectified women since his appointment to the board of the new Office for Students was announced last Monday. He has publicly made lewd comments about former colleagues’ breasts, among other sexually charged comments about them and other women.

Play Video 1:03 Theresa May on Toby Young: 'I'm not impressed by those comments' – video

During a session of prime minister’s questions in 2012, he tweeted: “Serious cleavage behind @Ed_Miliband’s head. Anyone know who it belongs to?”

On Sunday, Nash – to whom he was understood to be referring – said: “This is not about the odd tweet or stray comment. This is about a sustained, twisted view that has been expressed over many years.”

Her comments followed those of Dawn Butler and Angela Rayner, Labour’s women and equalities and education spokeswomen, who said on Friday Young should be sacked for displaying virulent misogyny during his career.

On Sunday, Nash added: “Toby Young has very well-documented views that clearly show him to be misogynist in the extreme with a disdain for working-class people.”

Young has been accused of writing in disparaging terms about working-class students at Oxford, the university he attended. He has denied that, saying his work has been mischaracterised and pointing out that, while his father was a peer, he was educated at comprehensive schools.

Nash said: “It is beyond belief that he has been appointed to the board of the Office of Students when he thinks so little of the majority of those who seek a university education.”

Young has acknowledged posting “sophomoric and silly” tweets in the past. On Wednesday, after two days of heavy criticism, he appeared to delete about 40,000 tweets, prompting Lord Storey, the Lib Dems’ education spokesman in the House of Lords, to claim Young had failed to follow guidelines that call for openness and transparency in a public office.

The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, Young’s contemporary at Oxford, has bemoaned the “ridiculous outcry” over the appointment, saying he is a man of “caustic wit”. His cabinet colleague Michael Gove agreed that Young’s appointment was appropriate.

The Department for Education declined to comment on Nash’s call for Young to be removed. It referred to the prime minister’s interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC in which she said he had done “exceedingly good work in relation to free schools” but warned that any future use of such language would result in him being “no longer ... in public office”.

Young did not respond immediately to requests for comment.



