{"id":738958,"date":"2026-08-15T15:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T15:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/738958\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T15:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T15:42:16","slug":"tributes-paid-to-jason-arday-after-former-cambridge-professors-death-jason-arday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/738958\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes paid to Jason Arday after former Cambridge professor\u2019s death | Jason Arday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has called the death of Jason Arday<\/a>, who was found dead at his home in south London on Friday, a \u201ctragedy on so many levels\u201d.<\/p>\n

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 3pm on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued via his publisher, Simon & Schuster UK, the former academic\u2019s family said they were \u201cin shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Cornwall on Saturday, the prime minister said: \u201cIt\u2019s a tragedy on so many levels, but particularly just for everybody who knew Jason, his family obviously, his friends. We think of them today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a moment for any rushing to judgment. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other leading figures to pay tribute included the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy.<\/p>\n

Khan said: \u201cI\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cJason Arday was the victim of a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position simply wouldn\u2019t have faced. His death was a tragedy, but once again it should be a wake-up call for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on Newsnight, Ribeiro-Addy read out a list of names including William O\u2019Reilly, Ross Holmes, David Lachman, and Nicola Morrison. \u201cThese 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\u2019 papers or published work that they had to withdraw,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ribeiro-Addy said there had been a media witch-hunt which was cruel because \u201cit didn\u2019t aim to just target him\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt aimed to target anybody that supported him, trying to isolate him as much as possible, going after people who had signed up to statements,\u201d she said. \u201cThe difference between them and him was they were white, and he was not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Conservative MP James Cleverly expressed his anger over Arday\u2019s death. In a statement on X, he wrote that a number of people at academic institutions \u201chave serious questions to answer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey 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,\u201d they said. \u201cHis exposure was inevitable, a case of when, not if. His whole world fell apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Baron-Cohen, a clinical psychologist and the director of the Autism Research Centre, who was a friend of Arday\u2019s, told Radio 4\u2019s Today programme that he contacted him Friday morning and said that he felt he was unable to go on.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used those words in voice notes,\u201d Baron-Cohen said. \u201cAt the heart of all of this was a man who\u2019d been diagnosed in childhood with disabilities that included autism and language delay and learning differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Arday was initially accused of plagiarising another person\u2019s work<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, other elements of his life story were increasingly questioned<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

The National Education Union general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said Arday had been subjected to \u201ca public and brutal takedown that unleashed a tirade of racism\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe this was ever simply about \u2018professional conduct\u2019 or \u2018plagiarism\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effect has been chilling. It tells Black people and others from underrepresented backgrounds that entering prominent public positions will make you a target.<\/p>\n

\u201cA target not only for criticism of your work, but for a much broader political and cultural backlash.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan police said his death was being treated as unexpected, but not believed to be suspicious.<\/p>\n

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans<\/a> can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a> at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org<\/a>. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline<\/a> is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham has called the death of Jason Arday, who was found dead at his home in south…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-738958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}