Downing Street wanted a ‘weirdo.’ One new hire resigned after racist, sexist comments emerge

The job posting called for “weirdos and misfits” to work for the government.

LONDON —
A British government job ad calling for “weirdos and misfits” has apparently backfired as an adviser hired resigned after a string of controversial statements emerged.

The original job was advertised on the blog of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, who is widely seen as the mastermind behind the success of Brexit in the 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union and the Conservative Party’s landslide election victory in December.

Among the desired categories for the jobs, which included a personal assistant and a data scientist role, were “weirdos and misfits with odd skills.”

Andrew Sabisky, a researcher, was appointed to Cummings’ team earlier this year. He resigned Monday after a string of controversial statements, particularly on eugenics — the aim to alter the human gene pool by selective breeding — were unearthed by the British media. Eugenics is widely associated with the aims of the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.

Sabisky’s problematic comments included remarks suggesting black Americans had lower IQs than white people, a tweet comparing women’s sports to the Paralympics, and a 2014 comment by Sabisky on one of Cummings’ own blog posts saying compulsory contraception could be used in order to prevent “creating a permanent underclass.”

Sabisky announced his resignation on Twitter Monday, saying his comments had been subject to “selective quoting” by the media. His Twitter account and the comment on Cummings’ blog post have now been deleted.

The scrutiny on the appointment increased further after Johnson’s office initially refused to comment on the hiring. When responding to questions on the prime minister’s views of Sabisky’s comments, a spokesman said: “The prime minister’s views are well publicized and well documented,” according to The Independent.

Critics on social media quickly observed that The Spectator magazine, of which Johnson was editor at the time, once published an article by the columnist Taki suggesting black people had lower IQs than white and Asian people. Johnson has since apologized for the publication of the article.

Kwasi Kwarteng, a lawmaker from Johnson’s Conservative Party and government minister, said Sabisky’s comments were “racist” and “reprehensible.”

ABC News was unable to reach Sabisky for comment. Downing Street did not immediately respond to a request for comment by ABC News.