Boris Johnson slams ‘ridiculous outcry’ after Labour call for Toby Young to be removed from university watchdog
Foreign Secretary said journalist and free schools campaigner ‘will bring independence, rigour and caustic wit’ to new role
BORIS Johnson has slammed the “ridiculous outcry” after Labour call for Toby Young to be removed from university watchdog position.
The Foreign Secretary has said the journalist and free schools campaigner “will bring independence, rigour and caustic wit” to the higher education regulator role.
He called him the "ideal man for the job", but the opposition said a series of social media posts were evidence he was inappropriate for a government role.
However Mr Young says his appointment is being criticised largely because of his political leanings rather than his qualifications for the role.
He told the Spectator's Coffee House podcast: "One of the reasons that my appointment has caused such a fuss is because I am an outspoken Tory and a defender of the government's education reforms.
"This is a sector, and I think there is no secret, which is completely dominated by the left."
And the Government defended his appointment to the board of the Office for Students (OfS), arguing the writer's "diverse experience" will be beneficial in the role.
But there have been questions raised about the Department for Education's descriptions of Mr Young's experience, after he clarified their statement that his "diverse experience includes posts" at Harvard and Cambridge.
He told The Guardian: "I taught undergrads at Harvard and Cambridge and was paid to do so but these weren't academic 'posts' and I've never made that claim."
And yesterday he said he regretted the “sophomoric, politically incorrect remarks” he made on Twitter.
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He added: "I hope people will judge me by my actions, not a few imprudent things I've tweeted or written in my 30-year career as a journalist. I've been a passionate advocate of increasing social mobility since the mid-80s.
"Since then I've co-founded four free schools and now run a charity which works with groups hoping to set up high-performing schools in areas of educational underperformance.
“I like to think it's because of this work that I've been appointed to the board of the OfS, not because I'm a Tory.”