Andy Burnham has called the death of Jason Arday, whose body was found at his home in south London on Friday, a “tragedy on so many levels”.
Arday resigned as a professor at the University of Cambridge last week after allegations of plagiarism, which he denied. He was pronounced dead just after ۳pm on Friday.
In a statement issued via his publisher, Simon & Schuster UK, the former academic’s family said they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son”.
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Cornwall on Saturday, the prime minister said: “It’s a tragedy on so many levels, but particularly just for everybody who knew Jason, his family obviously, his friends. We think of them today.
“It’s not a moment for any rushing to judgment. It’s a moment for reflection, I would say, reflecting on how how things came to this. A really sad, sad and sorry state of affairs and I think we all today think of Jason, his contribution and his family and friends.”
Other leading figures to pay tribute included the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Khan said: “I’m devastated for the family and friends of Jason Arday. He faced an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse. I know many Londoners will be angry and upset this evening.
“Jason Arday was the victim of a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position simply wouldn’t have faced. His death was a tragedy, but once again it should be a wake-up call for all of us.”
Speaking on Newsnight, Ribeiro-Addy read out a list of names including William O’Reilly, Ross Holmes, David Lachman, and Nicola Morrison. “These are all people that have actually proven to have been plagiarists, or people that have manipulated their data, and people that have been proven to have lifted whole pages from students’ papers or published work that they had to withdraw,” she said.
Ribeiro-Addy said there had been a media witch-hunt which was cruel because “it didn’t aim to just target him”.
“It aimed to target anybody that supported him, trying to isolate him as much as possible, going after people who had signed up to statements,” she said. “The difference between them and him was they were white, and he was not.”
The Conservative MP James Cleverly expressed his anger over Arday’s death. In a statement on X, he wrote that a number of people at academic institutions “have serious questions to answer”.
“They put him into positions he was clearly not qualified for so they could have a black wunderkind to show off, they pushed him into the spotlight for their own benefit,” they said. “His exposure was inevitable, a case of when, not if. His whole world fell apart.”
Simon Baron-Cohen, a clinical psychologist and the director of the Autism Research Centre, who was a friend of Arday’s, told Radio ۴’s Today programme that he contacted him Friday morning and said that he felt he was unable to go on.
“He used those words in voice notes,” Baron-Cohen said. “At the heart of all of this was a man who’d been diagnosed in childhood with disabilities that included autism and language delay and learning differences.
“He was a vulnerable child, a vulnerable teenager and a vulnerable adult, so he needed and deserved safeguarding and support and reasonable adjustment every step of the way.”
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Arday was initially accused of plagiarising another person’s work in his PhD thesis, but denied all allegations. A review conducted by Liverpool John Moores University, where he completed his doctorate, upheld its decision to award him a PhD earlier this year.
In recent weeks, other elements of his life story were increasingly questioned, including claims of prodigious money-raising for charity and feats of long-distance running. He was also challenged about whether he was nonverbal as a child.
The National Education Union general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said Arday had been subjected to “a public and brutal takedown that unleashed a tirade of racism”.
“I don’t believe this was ever simply about ‘professional conduct’ or ‘plagiarism’,” he said.
“There is a profound difference between scrutiny and a sustained public campaign that turns an individual into a symbol of everything the right believes is wrong with DEI.
“The effect has been chilling. It tells Black people and others from underrepresented backgrounds that entering prominent public positions will make you a target.
“A target not only for criticism of your work, but for a much broader political and cultural backlash.”
The Metropolitan police said his death was being treated as unexpected, but not believed to be suspicious.
