Toby Young has stepped down from the Office for Students less than 24 hours after the universities minister robustly countered criticism of his appointment.
In a statement posted on the Spectator website on Tuesday morning, Young, a champion of free schools, said: “My appointment has become a distraction from its vital work of broadening access to higher education and defending academic freedom.”
The Office for Students (OfS) chair, Sir Michael Barber, welcomed the news, which came after a backlash against the appointment, with questions about Young’s suitability for the role. Barber said Young had “reached the right conclusion”.
Barber added: “Many of his previous tweets and articles were offensive, and not in line with the values of the Office for Students. Mr Young was right to offer an unreserved apology for these comments and he was correct to say that his continuation in the role would have distracted from our important work.”
Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, had strongly criticised Young’s OfS appointment in a letter to the prime minister on Friday.
Rayner said on Twitter on Tuesday: “The Toby Young saga has cast great doubt on the judgment of the PM who failed to sack him in the first place. Then yesterday we had the spectacle of government universities minister defending his appointment in parliament, he had to go. Tory cronyism could not save his job.”
The University and College Union said Young should never have been appointed in the first place. The joint general secretary of the National Education Union, Mary Bousted, said he had “at last recognised what was so obvious to so many: he is not fit to hold a position in government”.
The Government are always 10 minutes late for the right decision. It's as if they love to be dragged kicking and screaming to the right decision and that they want to damage their reputation.
— Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) January 9, 2018
Young’s appointment to the OfS board, which is meant to help uphold standards at universities, caused a storm after critics highlighted a string of offensive tweets directed at women as well as controversial writing about working-class students.
Young, whose professional life has increasingly turned from his work as a journalist to the field of education, has cast his previous comments as remnants of a former life, for which he should not be judged too harshly now.
Writing on Tuesday, Young said: “The caricature drawn of me in the last seven days, particularly on social media, has been unrecognisable to anyone who knows me.” But he conceded: “Some of the things I said before I got involved in education, when I was a journalistic provocateur, were either ill-judged or just plain wrong – and I unreservedly apologise.”
Besides the judgment of the prime minister, Young’s decision to resign also called into question that of some of the most senior members of the cabinet – including the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and the environment secretary, Michael Gove – who had defended him.
In an interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC on Sunday, May appeared to back Young. But she warned that any future offensive language would result in him being “no longer … in public office”.
Last Wednesday Boris Johnson criticised the “ridiculous outcry”, saying Young would “bring independence, rigour and caustic wit” to the OfS. He was, the foreign secretary insisted, the “ideal man for [the] job”. Gove agreed, saying Boris Johnson’s comments were “quite right too”.On Tuesday, Young thanked the prime minister “for standing by me, and drawing a distinction between my earlier life and my subsequent record in education”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on the same day, the new Conservative chairman, Brandon Lewis, highlighted the caveats in May’s backing, but he defended Young’s “passion for education”.
Asked why May did not sack him earlier, Lewis said: “He has taken a decision about his position becoming a distraction … I respect that decision. But it shouldn’t distract either, to be fair, from the great work Toby Young has done improving school standards.” Lewis claimed May had shown “clear leadership” in wanting to have a team who were passionate about education.
TimelineToby Young: from appointment to resignation in eight days
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Announcing the appointment of Young as one of 15 board members, the Department for Education (DfE) said he had "diverse experience" that would help the new higher education watchdog, the Office for Students (OfS).
Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor for north-west England, says he was not granted an interview for the post, despite claiming to have more relevant experience than Young. Concerns over some of Young's previous comments also surface.
The journalist acknowledges he did not hold academic posts at Cambridge and Harvard, which many had understood from DfE statements.
The journalist releases a statement on his Facebook page saying he is amply qualified for the role, but acknowledging his regret over some the comments for which he is being criticised.
The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and the environment secretary, Michael Gove, are among those to defend Young's position.
Specific concerns over whether Young has abided by the principles set out in the job specification are brushed aside by the DfE. Young posted tweets that some said breached the standards expected in a public office. He then deleted many of them, prompting claims he had failed to show the necessary transparency.
Pressure begins to mount on the DfE as a union representing nearly half a million teachers and lecturers condemns Young's appointment.
Senior Labour figures write to the prime minister, Theresa May, calling on her to intervene and remove Young from his position.
After days of criticism, May appears on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday to back Young, though she says she is unhappy with some of his comments and will sack him if he repeats them.
Within hours of the prime minister's defence of him, Pamela Nash - a Labour politician about whom Young made lewd comments - calls for his dismissal.
With parliament back in session, Labour secures permission to publicly question the government over Young's appointment. The universities minister, Jo Johnson, issues a robust defence.
Less than 24 hours after Johnson's statement to the Commons insisting the free schools champion is the right man for the job, Young resigns.
The news of Young’s departure came hours after the education secretary, Justine Greening, left the government. She was replaced by Damian Hinds.
It also briefly exposed a rift between the OfS and the universities minister who has championed it, Jo Johnson. He appeared before MPs to offer a robust defence of Young on Monday afternoon and, having learned of his resignation on Tuesday morning, declined to backtrack.
“Toby Young’s track record setting up and supporting free schools speaks for itself,” he tweeted. In stark contrast to Barber’s tone, he said Young’s decision to resign stand down “reflects his character better than the one-sided caricature from his armchair critics”.
Within hours, however, Johnson had been moved to transport minister in the prime minister’s reshuffle.There was crossbench criticism of Young’s appointment. Speaking in Monday’s debate, the Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston said Young’s comments “do cross a line and are indicative of an underlying character”. Robert Halfon said of Young’s appointment: “Things have gone badly wrong here.” He told MPs he was “concerned about some quite dark articles in which [Young] talks about the disabled and the working classes”, as well as “progressive eugenics”.
A DfE spokesman said: “We can confirm that Toby Young has decided to resign from the board of the Office for Students. Everyone appointed to the board brings valuable experience which will be vital to the role of the new higher education regulator, and we remain confident it will deliver for students.”
