Toby Young has held on to his taxpayer-funded post running a free schools advisory service, despite his controversial views on women and genetics, but only after there were no other applicants.
Sources within the Department for Education (DfE) say ministers have reluctantly decided to reappoint the New Schools Network (NSN) – the organisation headed by Young in his £90,000-a-year role as its chief executive – to a contract to support applicants wanting to open free schools.
But the decision provoked debate within the DfE, following the controversy that erupted after Young’s appointment as a director of the new universities regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), at the start of the year and the public spotlight placed on his string of controversial and sexist remarks.
Young is likely to suffer a pay cut, with the DfE deciding to cut future grants for the NSN and refusing to support its attempts to expand into other areas, such as encouraging schools to convert to academies.
The tender for the grant was issued by the DfE last year, and closed on 19 January. Despite informal attempts by the DfE to encourage other organisations to enter, Young’s organisation remained the only complete bidder.
When it became clear that the NSN – which relies almost entirely on the DfE’s funding – was the only applicant, officials considered a range of policy options, including not fulfilling the tender.
When contacted on Thursday the DfE declined to comment.
The service contract was last awarded to Young’s organisation in 2014, when it was worth around £3m. But the sharp scaling back in new free school applications and openings has meant that the DfE is likely to reduce funding for the support service, as demand has dried up.
No successful free school applications have been announced for almost a year, and the government appears to have lost enthusiasm for the project it launched in 2011, with Young’s own West London Free School the first free school to open.
Recent DfE announcements have said that free school applications would be focused in “opportunity areas” identified as social mobility cold spots.
The process behind Young’s appointment to the OfS was heavily criticised by the commissioner for public appointments last month, whose report revealed that Young had been encouraged to apply by the then universities minister.
Questioned about the contract in the House of Commons in February, the education minister, Sam Gyimah, gave a studied response, saying the DfE was “looking at options”. Layla Morna, the Liberal Democrats education spokesperson, attacked Young’s OfS appointment as “blatant cronyism”.
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.
Since the controversy Young has kept an uncharacteristically low public profile. Statements put out by the NSN attributed quotes to a “spokesperson” rather than Young himself. The NSN’s board has restricted its remarks to a single comment, issued in January, that it “has complete confidence in Toby Young as NSN’s director.”
The controversy over the appointment thrust Young’s past statements about women, teachers and genetics into the spotlight, and caused Young to step down not only from the OfS board but also as a director of the Fulbright Commission that oversees student scholarship programmes between British and US universities.
The initial reaction to Young’s appointment to the OfS board centred on his track record of lewd comments about womens’ breasts and other sexually charged comments about women.
Young acknowledged what he called “sophomoric and silly” comments he had posted on Twitter and shortly after – following a storm of criticism – he appeared to delete about 40,000 tweets from his personal account.
But the controversy soon widened to include a string of statements from his years as a provocative columnist for the Spectator and other publications.
The controversy even engulfed Theresa May, when the prime minister publicly upbraided Young for his past comments.
But there was further concern when it emerged that Young had made published remarks in favour of something he described as “progressive eugenics”, and it was later revealed that he has attended a secret conference on eugenics and intelligence at University College London in 2017.
Young defended his presence at the conference in London as research for a speech he was planning to give at a separate event.
Young took over as head of the NSN in 2016, replacing Nick Timothy, the special adviser to May. He had briefly held the role in 2015 until May became prime minister and Timothy became one of her chiefs of staff.
