24 October 2017•Update: 25 October 2017
By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON
A Eurosceptic lawmaker has received criticism for a letter he posted to universities in the U.K., asking for the names of professors who lecture on Brexit.
Chris Heaton-Harris, the Conservative lawmaker for Daventry, wrote asking for names of professors and the content of their lectures.
The Universities and Colleges Union said it would ask Jo Johnson, the higher education minister, to strongly condemn the “McCarthyite” letter.
“This attempt by Chris Heaton-Harris to compile a hit-list of professors has the acrid whiff of McCarthyism about it and Jo Johnson must disown it in the strongest terms,” Sally Hunt, the union’s general secretary, said.
“Our universities and colleges must lead the way in defending academic freedom, where received wisdom can be challenged and controversial ideas debated.”
Speaking to BBC radio, Lord Patten, the chancellor of the University of Oxford, described the letter an “extraordinary example of outrageous and foolish behavior – offensive and idiotic Leninism”.
A statement by the government on Tuesday said Heaton-Harris had not been acting in his capacity as a government whip when he wrote the letter to university leaders asking for details of professors lecturing on Brexit.
“Chris Heaton-Harris wrote to universities in his capacity as an MP, not as a representative of the government,” a spokesman said.
“I think what the prime minister has always been very clear on is her respect for the freedom and independence of universities and the role they play in creating open and stimulating debate,” he added.
Heaton-Harris, known as a staunch Eurosceptic, later tweeted that he was after “an open and vigorous debate on Brexit”.
“To be absolutely clear, I believe in free speech in our universities and in having an open and vigorous debate on Brexit,” he said.
The U.K. is set to leave the EU in March 2019, ending its 44-year membership of the bloc.
