Think-Tank Chair Who Commissioned APCO Sat On Panel That Appointed Cambridge Professor Now Facing Plagiarism Claims

Baroness Morgan of Huyton, Master of Fitzwilliam College, was one of nine members of the selection panel that appointed Prof Jason Arday to the University of Cambridge's professorship in the sociology of education. The appointment, made in 2023 when Prof Arday was 37, made him the youngest Black professor at Cambridge.

The appointment has since been the subject of intense scrutiny after media reports and independent analysis suggested that more than 180 passages in Prof Arday's PhD thesis were identical or near-identical to another student's earlier thesis. The allegations have prompted questions about aspects of his academic record and some public claims he has made about his life and fundraising activities.

Prof Jason Arday, appointed by a panel including Baroness Morgan, has been at the centre of controversy over alleged plagiarism and his claims about his life have been questioned - www.teachingtimes.com

Baroness Morgan has also been in the spotlight over her role at Labour Together (now rebranded as Think Labour), the think tank that commissioned public affairs firm APCO to investigate reporters from the Sunday Times after the newspaper published a November 2023 story about the group's failure to declare £730,000 in donations. Reports about the APCO work say materials prepared for the inquiry included personal information about journalists who covered the funding irregularities.

Lady Morgan, appointed to the organisation's board in November 2023, told The Telegraph in February that the "scope of work" carried out by APCO was "indefensible" and that the board had not been shown the contract or the report. She said the organisation had implemented "several improvements to our operations following a governance review" and that it had since rebranded.

Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer's former chief of staff, headed Labour Together at the time of the funding irregularities reported by the Sunday Times - Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

"The Board of Electors for professorial appointments is always chaired by the Vice-Chancellor or one of the Vice-Chancellor's Deputies. As Head of House, Baroness Morgan served as a Vice-Chancellor's Deputy and was therefore asked to chair the Board," a University of Cambridge spokesman said, adding that all other members of the panel were academics, including distinguished academics from other universities.

Prof Arday has responded to some of the criticism. In an interview with The Times he acknowledged a number of errors in his work and attributed some issues to the way his autism shaped his approach to information, describing a tendency to rely on mimicry. He has also described being the target of a "dark arts" campaign.

Several personal claims made by Prof Arday have been challenged during the coverage. Footage of an October 2022 talk resurfaced in which he said he had appeared as a child on the long-running documentary series Seven Up; fact-checkers noted the original series began in the 1960s and that the BBC's later spin-off, Up: Millennium Generation, does not include him. The BBC confirmed he was not involved with the Millennium films.

Separately, Prof Arday told a newspaper that a severed pig's head was delivered to his family's home as part of a campaign of intimidation, and that police had traced a butcher who sold a "whole hog" on the morning of the alleged incident. The Guardian reported that the Metropolitan Police said it had no record of an investigation or of officers visiting the named butchers, and the butchers reportedly denied any such police contact.

The Telegraph has sought comment from Baroness Morgan. The university and Prof Arday have issued statements addressing aspects of the dispute, and inquiries and reviews remain ongoing in the public domain.