Kemi Badenoch Boasts About Handing Peerage to ‘Radical’ Covid Sceptic With a History of Sexism and Homophobia

The Conservative leader praised Toby Young as 'brave', 'smart' and a 'true radical'

Kemi Badenoch has handed a lifetime peerage to a man who was previously forced to step down as a Government adviser for making sexist and homophobic comments, and who was later criticised by the official press regulator for putting out “significantly misleading” information about the Covid virus during the pandemic.

Toby Young, who is head of the ‘Free Speech Union’, was forced to step down as an adviser to Theresa May’s Government in 2018 after his previous comments about women and gay people were revealed.

Young described a gay celebrity as looking "queer as a coot" and recalled visiting a bar containing "hardcore dykes."

In now-deleted Tweets, he also made a series of sexist comments about the appearance of prominent female celebrities and politicians.

Some of the now-deleted Tweets posted by Lord Toby Young

Young later defended his close friend Boris Johnson, after the former PM was accused of sexually assaulting a colleague at the Spectator, saying that women at the magazine would complain if he "didn't put his hand on their knee".

Young, who set up the Covid misinformtion blog ‘The Daily Skeptic’, was also criticised by the press regulator IPSO in 2021 for putting out “significantly misleading” claims about the virus during the pandemic.