The government has fired its housing adviser Sir Roger Scruton after he appeared to repeat antisemitic statements and denied Islamophobia was an issue.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing said: “Sir Roger Scruton has been dismissed as chairman of the Building Better, Building Beautiful commission with immediate effect, following his unacceptable comments.”
In an interview with the New Statesman, the philosopher questioned the meaning of Islamophobia and accused Jewish-American businessman George Soros of “running an empire” in Hungary.
He said he stood by comments he has made previously that Islamophobia was a “propaganda word invented by the Muslim Brotherhood in order to stop discussion of a major issue”.
Shadow equalities secretary Dawn Butler said Scruton’s latest comments were “despicable and invoke the language of white supremacists”.
She added: “His claim that Islamophobia does not exist, a few weeks after the devastating attack in Christchurch, is extremely dangerous.”
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