Boris Johnson adviser quits over past remarks on race, eugenics

An adviser to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson quit Monday after receiving backlash over his previous remarks on race and eugenics. 

Andrew Sabisky announced his resignation on Twitter after several politicians and experts accused the British government of condoning his views by allowing him to stay.

“The media hysteria about my old stuff online is mad but I wanted to help HMG not be a distraction,” he posted, referring to Her Majesty’s Government.

“I know this will disappoint a lot of ppl but I signed up to do real work, not be in the middle of a giant character assassination: if I can’t do the work properly there’s no point, & I have a lot of other things to do w/ my life,” he added.

Sabisky was brought on as a contractor by Johnson’s senior aide Dominic Cummings. He described himself as a “superforecaster,” whom Cummings recruited for special projects, “to find and exploit, without worrying about media noise … ‘very high leverage ideas’ [that] these will almost inevitably seem bad to most,” The Guardian reported.

But Sabisky’s past comments came under increasing scrutiny, including two posts from 2014 in which he encouraged politicians to consider the “very real racial differences in intelligence” when formulating immigration policy, hinting that black people have lower IQs on average than white people.

A book review by Sabisky asserted that public benefit claimants “tend to be less conscientious and agreeable” and should be advised to have less children. 

After these comments surfaced, some members of Parliament called for Sabisky to resign.

The prime minister’s government was questioned about whether Johnson agrees with Sabisky’s views at a press briefing Monday, to which a deputy official spokesperson only said, “The prime minister’s views are well publicised and well documented,” according to The Guardian.

“It’s right that Andrew Sabisky is no longer working in government. He should never have been appointed in the first place,” Labour Party Chairman Ian Lavery said.