Toby Young#Eugenics

Born in Buckinghamshire, Young was brought up in Highgate, North London, and in South Devon. His mother Sasha (1931–1993), daughter of Raisley Stewart Moorsom, a descendant of Admiral Sir Robert Moorsom, who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar,{{cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2007/11/im-proud-that-my-ancestor-served-at-trafalgar-but-not-too-proud-to-sell-his-stuff/|title=I'm proud that my ancestor served at Trafalgar. But not too proud to sell his stuff|date=7 November 2007|website=The Spectator}}Burke's Peerage and Baronetage 1999, vol. 2, p. 3093 was a BBC Radio producer, artist and writer,{{cite news|work=The Independent| date=June 25, 1993 | title = Obituary: Sasha Young | author= Karl Miller | page = 24}} and his father was Michael Young (later Lord Young of Dartington), a Labour life peer and sociologist who popularized the word meritocracy.Michael Young [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/29/comment "Down with meritocracy"], The Guardian, 29 June 2001. Retrieved 14 February 2010. Although entitled to use the style The Hon. Toby Young,{{cite book| editor-last = Mosley| editor-first = Charles| title = Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th edn | publisher = Burke's Peerage Ltd | page = 3093 (YOUNG OF DARTINGTON, LP) | date = 1999 | isbn = 2-940085-02-1}} he did not.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/may/17/workandcareers1|website=theguardian.com|access-date=5 July 2015|title=The office clown – By Toby Young|date=16 May 2008}}

Young attended Creighton School (now Fortismere School), Muswell Hill and King Edward VI Community College, Totnes. Young later wrote that he was not popular at school: "My only friend was a black boy called Remi, who explained that the reason he'd taken a shine to me was because he knew what it was like to be a 'nigger'."{{cite news| location=London| work=The Independent| first=Toby| last=Young | title=Young, gifted and disliked| date=21 October 2001}} He left school at 16, having failed all but one of his O Levels (the pass was a C in English Literature{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/05/why-impulsive-vain-toby-young-wants-us-to-take-him-seriously|title=Toby Young: social media self-obsessive still battling with father's shadow|last=Booth|first=Robert|date=5 January 2018|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=5 September 2018}}). He then retook his O Levels and went to the Sixth Form of William Ellis School, Highgate, leaving with two Bs and a C at A Level. Having applied to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University, he had been given a conditional offer of three Bs plus an O Level pass in a foreign language from Brasenose College, under an Inner London Education Authority scheme to provide university access to comprehensive pupils. Despite failing to meet that offer, he was awarded a place to study at the college.{{cite news|last=Mikhailova|first=Anna|title=Fame and Fortune: How not to alienate the taxman|url=http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/money/investments/article1241130.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004234751/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/money/investments/article1241130.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 October 2013|access-date=8 August 2013|newspaper=The Sunday Times|date=7 April 2013|page=8}}{{cite news|title=Oxford admissions rouse passion as two tribes war over 'unfairness'|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/421666.article|access-date=3 August 2013|newspaper=Times Higher Education}}{{cite news|last=Young|first=Toby|title=Status Anxiety|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/life/status-anxiety/2092496/status-anxiety-49/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924131450/http://www.spectator.co.uk/life/status-anxiety/2092496/status-anxiety-49/|archive-date=24 September 2015|access-date=3 August 2013|newspaper=The Spectator|date=11 September 2008}} Young said he was sent an acceptance letter by mistake, as well as a letter of rejection from the admissions tutor Harry Judge. In an article he wrote for The Spectator, he said that his father phoned Judge to clarify the situation – Judge was in a meeting with the PPE tutors at the time, and after some discussion, they decided to offer Young a place owing to a moral obligation the mistaken acceptance created.

Young graduated in 1986 with a first in PPE, and then worked for The Times for six months as a news trainee until he was fired for (according to Young himself) hacking the computer system, impersonating the editor Charles Wilson and circulating information about senior executives' salaries to others around the building.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11977647/I-went-to-a-state-school-and-got-a-First-at-Oxford.html|title=I went to a state school and got a First at Oxford|last=Young|first=Toby|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=5 November 2015|access-date=3 September 2018|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}{{cite book|last=Young|first=Toby|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M-nwIgHbrZgC&pg=PT26|title=The Sound of No Hands Clapping|location=London|publisher=Little, Brown/Hachette Digital|year=2008|orig-year=2006|page=26|isbn=9780748109852}} He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at Harvard then spent two years at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he carried out research for a PhD which he left without completing.{{cite news|last=Wilby|first=Peter|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school|title=Can Toby Young's free school succeed?|work=The Guardian|date=5 April 2011|access-date=5 January 2018}}

In 1991, Young co-founded and co-edited the Modern Review with Julie Burchill and her then husband Cosmo Landesman. Its motto was "Low culture for highbrows".{{cite news|last=Harris|first=John|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/may/29/pressandpublishing.observerreview|title=I supplied talent and drugs|work=The Observer|date=29 May 2005|access-date=11 January 2018}} "The whole enterprise was driven by one fairly simple idea", Young said in 2005. "And that was that critics had a responsibility to take the best popular culture as seriously as the best high culture".

Four years later the magazine was close to financial collapse and Young closed it down, angering his principal financial backer Peter York, as well as Burchill and staff writer Charlotte Raven.{{cite news|last=Barber|first=Lynn|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/03/biography|title=Forever Young|work=The Observer|date=3 September 2006|access-date=11 January 2018}} Burchill had tried to replace Young as editor with Raven. "Ultimately the reason we fell out is because our relationship began as a kind of mentor-apprentice, and that was a kind of relationship which Julie was comfortable with. It was only when I succeeded in getting out from under her shadow that our relationship deteriorated", Young said in 2005.{{cite news|last1=Young|first1=Toby|last2=Morris|first2=Sophie|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/my-mentor-toby-young-on-julie-burchill-318526.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/my-mentor-toby-young-on-julie-burchill-318526.html |archive-date=21 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=My Mentor: Toby Young on Julie Burchill|work=The Independent|date=9 October 2005|access-date=11 January 2018}}

Young moved to New York City shortly afterwards to work for Vanity Fair. In the time he wrote for the magazine he contributed 3,000 words, and was paid $85,000.{{cite book|last=Young|first=Toby|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeSbvMB9ChUC&pg=PT111|title=How To Lose Friends & Alienate People|location=London|publisher=Little, Brown/Hachette Digital|year=2008|orig-year=2001|page=111|isbn=9780748109845}} After being sacked by Vanity Fair in 1998, he stayed in New York for two more years, working as a columnist for the New York Press, before returning to the UK in 2000. A memoir of these years, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, was published in 2001.{{cite news|last=Anthony|first=Andrew|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2001/nov/11/society1|title=How to screw up. Big time|work=The Observer|date=11 November 2001|access-date=11 January 2018}}

Following Jack Davenport, Young performed in the West End one-man stage adaptation of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People in 2004. Theatre critic Lyn Gardner gave it a one star review commenting that "The curious thing about this is that Young's day job is as theatre critic of the Spectator. You would think he might have developed some respect for the job that actors do. Clearly not. But then, neither does he appear to have picked up any tips on acting along the way."{{cite web|last=Gardner|first=Lyn|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/oct/30/theatre|title=How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (review)|work=The Guardian|date=30 October 2004|access-date=11 January 2018}} A review in The Stage stated, "Despite Young's previous thespic experience being the only student at Anna Scher’s drama school not to get a part in Grange Hill and having been fired after a week as an extra on the film Another Country, he gives a thoroughly convincing performance as himself…".{{cite news |title='Toby Young is thoroughly convincing… as himself' – 15 years ago in The Stage |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/archive/toby-young-is-thoroughly-convincing-as-himself--15-years-ago-in-the-stage |access-date=20 August 2022 |work=The Stage |publisher=The Stage |language=En}} The Evening Standard praised his performance.{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Pete|title=Winning friends in theatreland |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/winning-friends-in-theatreland-7382816.html |access-date=20 August 2022 |work=Evening Standard |date=10 April 2012 |language=en}} In 2005, he co-wrote (with fellow Spectator journalist Lloyd Evans) a sex farce about the David Blunkett/Kimberley Quinn intrigue and the "Sextator" affairs of Boris Johnson and Rod Liddle called Who's the Daddy?Sarah Lyall [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/24/opinion/spectator.php "A very British 'documentary farce'"], International Herald Tribune, 25 August 2005, reprinting a New York Times article. Retrieved 23 June 2007.{{Cite news|title=Just how horrible is Toby Young?|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/just-how-horrible-is-toby-young-1.891594|last=Clarke|first=Donald|date=4 October 2008|access-date=18 January 2021|newspaper=The Irish Times}} It was named as the Best New Comedy at the 2006 Theatregoers' Choice Awards.{{cite news

|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/review/panel/5327292.stm

|title= Toby Young

|access-date=22 October 2008

|work=BBC News

|date= 8 September 2006 }} The following year A Right Royal Farce, Young and Evans' play about sexual antics of the British royal family was poorly received by the press.{{Cite news|title=A Right Royal Farce|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/aug/01/theatre1|last=Billington|first=Michael|date=1 August 2006|access-date=18 January 2021|work=The Guardian|author-link=Michael Billington (critic)}} Young said of the play "It was an unqualified disaster". It received scathing reviews from the Evening Standard and The Guardian.

From 2002 to 2007, Young wrote a restaurant column for the Evening Standard and claimed in a PM (BBC Radio 4) club membership discussion (20 March 2024) with Evan Davis that he was previously blackballed from joining the Garrick Club, a decade earlier, for criticising their catering in his column, while working for the Evening Standard. He later authored a restaurant column for The Independent on Sunday. In addition to serving as a judge on Top Chef, Young has competed in the Channel 4 TV series Come Dine with Me, appearing as one of the panel of food critics in the 2008 BBC Two series Eating with the Enemy and served as a judge on Hell's Kitchen.[http://www.tobyyoung.co.uk/restaurant_reviews/3/list.html "Archive of Toby Young's Restaurant Reviews"], Evening Standard.

Young is an associate editor of The Spectator, where he writes a weekly column, the editor of Spectator Life{{Cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/author/toby-young/|title=Author: Toby Young {{!}} The Spectator|website=The Spectator|language=en-US|access-date=3 September 2018}} and a regular contributor to the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/toby-young/|title=Toby Young|work=The Telegraph|access-date=3 September 2018|language=en-GB}} His Telegraph blog was long-listed for the 2012 George Orwell Prize for blogging.[http://theorwellprize.co.uk/longlists/toby-young/ "Telegraph Blogs: Toby Young"], The Orwell Prize. He was a political columnist for The Sun on Sunday for its first 11 months.{{cite news|last=Montgomerie|first=Tim|url=https://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2013/01/what-do-rupertmurdoch-and-david-cameron-have-in-common-they-both-love-new-sun-columnist-louisemensch.html|title=What do Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron have in common? They both love new Sun columnist Louise Mensch|work=Conservative Home|date=27 January 2013|access-date=4 January 2018}}

During the 2015 Labour leadership election, he encouraged readers of the politically conservative Daily Telegraph to join the Labour party and support Jeremy Corbyn, who Young thought was the weakest candidate.{{cite news|title=Why Tories should join Labour and back Jeremy Corbyn|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11680016/Why-Tories-should-join-Labour-and-back-Jeremy-Corbyn.html|work=Telegraph.co.uk|language=en}}

In February 2020, Young co-founded the Free Speech Union.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/free-speech-union-fights-twitter-witch-hunts-3sptq65bk|title = Free speech union fights Twitter 'witch‑hunts'|last1 = Simpson|first1 = John}} In November 2021 he was awarded the 2021 Contrarian Prize.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/11/13/do-send-many-idiots-university/|title = Why do we send so many idiots to university?|last = Deacon|first = Michael| date=13 November 2021}}

In 2019, Young supported Boris Johnson for leader of the Conservative Party.{{cite web |last=Young |first=Toby |date=23 July 2019 |title=Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man: A Profile of Boris Johnson |url=https://quillette.com/2019/07/23/cometh-the-hour-cometh-the-man-a-profile-of-boris-johnson/ |website=Quillette}} In 2020, he said he was wrong to back him.{{cite web |last=Young |first=Toby |date=17 September 2020 |title=I admit it: I was wrong to back Boris |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-admit-it-i-was-wrong-to-back-boris |website=The Spectator}} Two years later he again backed Johnson as party leader.{{cite web |last=Young |first=Toby |date=20 October 2022 |title=It's Got to be Boris |url=https://dailysceptic.org/2022/10/20/its-got-to-be-boris/ |website=The Daily Sceptic}}[http://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/PrisonersofTheBlob.pdf "Prisoners of The Blob: Why most education experts are wrong about nearly everything"], Civitas, April 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2014. In 2023, the New Statesman named Young as the 44th most influential right-wing figure in British politics.{{Cite web |last=Statesman |first=New |date=2023-09-27 |title=The New Statesman's right power list |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2023/09/the-new-statesmans-right-power-list |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}

Young was a proposer and co-founder of the West London Free School, the first free school to sign a funding agreement with the Education Secretary, and is now a trustee of The West London Free School Academy Trust, the charitable trust that manages the school.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8401822.stm "Toby Young's battle to set up a new school"], BBC2, 8 December 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2010.{{cite news|last=Harrison |first=Angela |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12622055 |title=Free Schools: Toby Young's is first to get go ahead |work=BBC News |date=2 March 2011 |access-date=14 January 2014}} The school was founded at Palingswick House, which displaced over 20 voluntary organisations previously located there.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/jan/17/young-free-school-groups-refugees|title=Free school plan comes at a price for voluntary groups|work=The Guardian|last=Vasagar|first=Jeevan|date=17 January 2011|access-date=18 April 2020}} He stood down as CEO of the school in May 2016 after admitting that he did not realise how difficult it was going to be to run.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/toby-young-admits-running-a-school-was-harder-than-i-thought-as-he-backs-down-as-free-school-ceo-a7017651.html "Toby Young admits there was more to running a school than he realised"], The Independent, 6 May 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2017. The national press coverage of the school having four headteachers in six years was linked to the higher profile for the school caused by its connection to Young.[https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/ex-grammar-school-principal-becomes-latest-head-west-london-free "Ex-grammar school principal becomes latest head of West London Free School"], TES, 28 December 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2017. The trust opened a primary school in Hammersmith in 2013, a second primary in Earls Court in 2014 and a third primary in Kensington in 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/22/toby-young-clings-on-to-taxpayer-funded-new-schools-network-role|title=Toby Young clings on to taxpayer-funded free schools role|last=Adams|first=Richard|date=22 March 2018|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=3 September 2018}} Young is a follower of the American educationalist E. D. Hirsch and an advocate of a traditional, knowledge-based approach to education.

In 2012, Young wrote an article in The Spectator criticising the emphasis on "inclusion" in state schools, saying that the word "inclusive" was "one of those ghastly, politically correct words that have survived the demise of New Labour. Schools have got to be 'inclusive' these days. That means wheelchair ramps, the complete works of Alice Walker in the school library...".{{cite news|last1=Young|first1=Toby|title=I am living proof that 'two-tier' exams work|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2012/06/i-am-living-proof-that-two-tier-exams-work/|access-date=21 January 2018|work=The Spectator|date=30 June 2012}} Young denied that he was attacking the provision of equal access to mainstream schools for people with disabilities, saying he was only referring to the alleged "dumbing down" of the curriculum.{{cite news |last1=Rawlinson |first1=Kevin |last2=Luxmoore |first2 = Sara |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/02/doubts-cast-on-dfe-claims-of-toby-youngs-qualifications-for-watchdog-post |title=Doubts cast on DfE claims of Toby Young's qualifications for watchdog post |work=The Guardian |date=2 January 2018 |access-date=3 January 2018}}

In 2015, the London Review of Books{{'}}s cover story for its May 7 issue was an article written by British journalist Dawn Foster criticising the free school movement. In a letter to the London Review of Books, Young took issue with Foster's interpretation of free schools data and made claims that were challenged by the author Michael Rosen, journalist Melissa Benn, and education researcher Janet Downs in further letters written to the publication.{{Cite news|last=Foster|first=Dawn|date=2015-05-06|title=Free Schools|language=en|volume=37|work=London Review of Books|issue=9|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n09/dawn-foster/free-schools|access-date=2021-12-06|issn=0260-9592}}{{Cite web|date=2015-06-12|title=Dawn Foster demolishing the arguments for free schools in the London Review of Books|url=https://repeaterbooks.com/dawn-foster-demolishing-the-arguments-for-free-schools-in-the-london-review-of-books/|access-date=2021-12-06|website=Repeater Books|language=en-GB}} Foster responded to Young in the London Review of Books letters refuting Young's criticism and wrote:

Creaming off the children of more affluent parents constitutes social segregation; so too does the existence of religious free schools. Young seems to think he is held in high regard by free school advocates. When I mentioned his name in the course of interviewing a former Department for Education employee for the piece, my interviewee headbutted the restaurant table in exasperation. I have found the sentiment, if not the gesture, to be common among his ideological comrades.

In 2015, Young wrote an article for the Australian magazine Quadrant entitled "The fall of meritocracy". Under a section titled "Progressive eugenics" he discussed developments in genetically engineered intelligence, and proposed that should the technology for selecting embryos for high intelligence become practicable, it could be provided "free of charge to parents on low incomes with below-average IQs.” He argued this "could help to address the problem of flat-lining inter-generational social mobility and serve as a counterweight to the tendency for the meritocratic elite to become a hereditary elite," through a mechanism that should be acceptable to political conservatives and also argued that "This is a kind of eugenics that should appeal to liberals — progressive eugenics."{{cite web|last=Young|first=Toby|url=https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/09/fall-meritocracy/|title=The Fall of the Meritocracy|work=Quadrant|date=7 September 2015|access-date=11 January 2018}} Young has maintained that criticism of him as a eugenicist is "based on a deliberate misreading" of the article and that "If 'eugenics' is forced sterilisation, what I was proposing was the opposite — free IVF for the poor."{{cite journal|author= Toby Young| title= There's nothing neutral about Wikipedia| journal= The Spectator|url = https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/there-s-nothing-neutral-about-wikipedia|date = 2020-10-30|quote = If it ever becomes possible for couples to cherry-pick embryos in a genetics lab according to which ones are likely to have the highest IQ, that technology should be made available for free on the NHS because otherwise it will enable the rich to give their children an even greater competitive advantage. If ‘eugenics’ is forced sterilisation, what I was proposing was the opposite — free IVF for the poor.|access-date = 2020-10-30}}

Young attended the London Conference on Intelligence at University College London (UCL) in 2017, which was described by the media and a number of politicians as a "secret eugenics conference".{{cite news|title=Toby Young breeds contempt|work=Private Eye|issue=1461|publisher=Pressdram Ltd|date=January 2018|page=11}}{{cite news|last1=Baynes|first1=Chris|title=University College London launches 'eugenics' probe after controversial secret conference on campus|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/university-college-london-eugenics-probe-secret-conference-campus-ucl-white-supremacists-debate-lci-a8153326.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/university-college-london-eugenics-probe-secret-conference-campus-ucl-white-supremacists-debate-lci-a8153326.html |archive-date=21 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=21 January 2018|work=The Independent|date=11 January 2018}} Young said that he attended the conference as a journalist to report about it (which he later did), in preparation for the "super-respectable" International Society for Intelligence Research conference in Montreal in July 2017 at which he gave a speech, which was later published.{{cite news|last1=Rawlinson|first1=Kevin|last2=Adams|first2=Richard|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/10/ucl-to-investigate-secret-eugenics-conference-held-on-campus|title=UCL to investigate eugenics conference secretly held on campus|work=The Guardian|date=11 January 2018|access-date=11 January 2018}}{{cite news|url=http://www.isironline.org/2017-montreal-canada-july-14-16/|work=International Society for Intelligence Research|title=2017: July 14-16 in Montreal|date=28 June 2017|access-date=14 January 2018}}{{cite news|last=Young|first=Toby|url=https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/toby-young-once-more-unto-the-breach/|title=Once more unto the breach|work=The Spectator|date=11 January 2018|access-date=12 January 2018}}

In January 2018 Young was announced as one of the non-executive members of the board for the new Office for Students (OfS), a body intended to ensure institutions in higher education are accountable.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42540363|title=University job backlash because I'm a Tory – Toby Young|work=BBC News|date=2 January 2018|access-date=2 January 2018}} The Guardian later revealed that claims by the Department for Education about Young's teaching posts at the University of Cambridge and Harvard were misleading as although Young had taught at the universities, he had not been appointed to an academic post. The appointment became the subject of controversy when Twitter posts, described as "misogynistic and homophobic", were uncovered. He resigned a week later, stating that his appointment had "become a distraction" counteracting the "vital work" of the OfS.{{cite news |last1=Rawlinson |first1=Kevin |last2=Phipps |first2=Claire |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/09/toby-young-resigns-office-for-students |title=Toby Young resigns from the Office for Students after backlash|work=The Guardian|date=9 January 2018|access-date=9 January 2018}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42617922|title=Toby Young resigns from university regulator|work=BBC News|date=9 January 2018|access-date=9 January 2018}} Shortly afterwards he resigned also as a Fulbright Commissioner.{{cite web|title=Resignation from the Commission {{!}} US-UK Fulbright Commission|url=http://www.fulbright.org.uk/news/resignation-from-the-commission|publisher=Fulbright Commission|date=9 January 2018|access-date=11 January 2018|language=en}}

An inquiry was launched shortly after Young's resignation by Peter Riddell, the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Riddell said the OfS panel report to ministers about Young "made no mention of Mr Young’s history of controversial comments and use of social media". The disquiet which followed "makes a strong case for more extensive due diligence inquiries".{{cite news|last=Adams|first=Richard|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/11/toby-young-office-for-students-appointment-inquiry-launched|title='Serious failing': inquiry to scrutinise Toby Young's OfS appointment|work=The Guardian|date=11 January 2018|access-date=12 January 2018}}

In March 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, Young wrote in The Critic that he "suspect[ed] the Government has overreacted to the coronavirus crisis", expressing worry about the "economic cost".{{Cite news|title=Coronavirus: Fury over Toby Young's claims about elderly people|url=https://www.thenational.scot/news/18347875.coronavirus-fury-toby-youngs-claims-elderly-people/|last=Webster|first=Laura|date=31 March 2020|access-date=20 May 2020|work=The National}} In reference to the modelling of a team at Imperial College London led by Neil Ferguson, he wrote: "spending £350 billion to prolong the lives of a few hundred thousand mostly elderly people is an irresponsible use of taxpayer's money." Peter Jukes wrote that Young's views could be "outright deadly" in a pandemic; Darren McGarvey compared Young's views to austerity.

Young, who initiated the Lockdown Sceptics newsletter (now retitled The Daily Sceptic),{{Cite web |date=2022-07-01 |title=Studies show that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines outweigh their risks; preprint claiming to show otherwise is flawed |url=https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/studies-benefits-of-covid-19-vaccines-outweigh-risks-preprint-flawed-daily-sceptic/ |access-date=2023-02-08 |website=Health Feedback |language=en-US |quote=An article published by the website The Daily Sceptic, formerly known as Lockdown Sceptics...}} called for stopping the lockdown before 14 April 2020. Saying that he had probably contracted the virus, he wrote that "if the Government does end the lockdown, and it turns out that by the time I require critical care the NHS cannot accommodate me, I won't regret writing this". He argued his own death would be "acceptable collateral damage". Young's view contrasted with the scientific recommendations for lockdown policy in the UK.{{cite web|url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/science-and-technology/epidemiology-misinformation-coronavirus-covid19-conspiracy-theory|title=The epidemiology of misinformation|work=Prospect|last=Ball|first=Philip|date=19 May 2020|access-date=20 May 2020}}

In June 2020, he wrote that "the virus has all but disappeared".{{Cite news|title=Students quit free speech campaign over role of Toby Young-founded group|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/09/students-quit-free-speech-campaign-over-role-of-toby-young-founded-group|last=Bland|first=Archie|date=9 January 2021|access-date=11 January 2021|work=The Guardian}} In January 2021, he appeared on Newsnight, and when he was challenged about his comments about the virus, he said: "hands up, I got that wrong" and made arguments against lockdowns.

On 14 January 2021, the British press regulator IPSO ruled that an article Young had written for The Daily Telegraph in July 2020 was "significantly misleading" and that the newspaper had failed to take care not to publish inaccurate information.{{Cite news|title=Daily Telegraph rebuked over Toby Young's Covid column|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/14/daily-telegraph-rebuked-over-toby-youngs-herd-immunity-covid-column|last=Bland|first=Archie|date=15 January 2021|access-date=15 January 2021|work=The Guardian}}{{Cite news|title=Toby Young: Telegraph coronavirus column 'significantly misleading'|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55676037|date=15 January 2020|access-date=16 January 2020|work=BBC News}} In the article, Young claimed that common cold coronaviruses gave people immunity against SARS-CoV-2, and that in July 2020 London had almost achieved herd immunity. Neither claim was supported by scientists at the time.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=11845-20|title = Ruling}} IPSO ordered the newspaper to publish a correction. The Telegraph removed the article from its website and Young deleted many of his tweets about the pandemic.

The Daily Sceptic has promoted misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.{{refn|{{Cite web |date=2021-10-11 |title=Teen deaths up since last year, but no evidence vaccines responsible |url=https://fullfact.org/health/daily-sceptic-56-percent-rise-teen-deaths/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Full Fact |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2022-09-19 |title=The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective; claim that they have caused an "international medical crisis" is baseless |url=https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/covid-19-vaccines-safe-and-effective-claim-they-have-caused-international-medical-crisis-baseless-oan-daily-sceptic/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Health Feedback |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=2022-09-19 |title=Fact Check-Vaccine-effectiveness study does not show 'negative immunity' or harm to the immune system |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-covidvaccine-nejm-study-idUSL1N30N1GB |access-date=2022-12-30}}{{Cite web |last=Payne |first=Ed |date=September 29, 2022 |title=Fact Check: Oxford Study Does NOT Say COVID Vaccination Increases Infection Risk by 44% -- Figure Is From Study Subsection Only |url=https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2022/09/fact-check-vaccination-increases-infection-risk-by-44-oxford-study-finds-the-daily-sceptic.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Lead Stories |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2022-12-13 |title=No, a German "autopsy report" didn't show COVID-19 vaccines as "likely" cause of sudden deaths |url=https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/german-autopsy-report-didnt-covid-19-vaccines-likely-cause-sudden-deaths/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Health Feedback |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Jaramillo |first=Catalina |date=2022-12-21 |title=Autopsy Study Doesn't Show COVID-19 Vaccines Are Unsafe |url=https://www.factcheck.org/2022/12/scicheck-autopsy-study-doesnt-show-covid-19-vaccines-are-unsafe/ |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=FactCheck.org |language=en-US}}}} In September 2022, PayPal shut down the accounts of Young, the Free Speech Union and The Daily Sceptic website. The accounts were closed because of breaches of PayPal's acceptable use policy, thought to be because of alleged misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.{{cite news |author=James Beal |date=22 September 2022 |title=PayPal Free Speech Union accounts shut over Covid 'misinformation' |newspaper=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/paypal-free-speech-union-accounts-shut-over-covid-misinformation-90bzf2b2g |access-date=2022-09-23 |issn=0140-0460 |via=}} The accounts were restored later that month after extensive criticism of PayPal's actions by MPs.{{cite news |last1=Diver |first1=Tony |last2=Bodkin |first2=Henry |title=PayPal reinstates Free Speech Union accounts after being accused of 'politically motivated' ban |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/27/paypal-reinstates-free-speech-union-accounts-accused-politically/ |access-date=30 September 2022 |work=Daily Telegraph |date=27 September 2022}}

In late 2024, Young was nominated for a life peerage by Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party.{{Cite press release |date=20 December 2024 |title=Political Peerages December 2024 |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/political-peerages-december-2024 |website=GOV.UK |publisher=Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street |access-date=20 December 2024}}{{Cite news |last=Pollock |first=Laura |date=20 December 2024 |title=See the 38 new lifetime peers announced by the UK Government |url=https://www.thenational.scot/news/24808667.see-new-lifetime-peers-announced-uk-government/ |work=The National |access-date=20 December 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241220145456/https://www.thenational.scot/news/24808667.see-new-lifetime-peers-announced-uk-government/ |archive-date=20 December 2024 |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last1=Biggar |first1=Nigel |last2=Young |first2=Toby |date=28 January 2025 |title=Free speech matters to Kemi Badenoch and it should matter to you |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/28/free-speech-matters-to-kemi-badenoch-and-it-should-matter/ |work=The Telegraph |access-date=28 January 2025}} He was created Baron Young of Acton, of Acton in the London Borough of Ealing, on 21 January 2025,{{London Gazette |date=27 January 2025 |issue=64640 |page=1282}} and was introduced to the House of Lords on 28 January.{{Cite Hansard |title=Introduction: Lord Young of Acton |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-01-28/debates/0753A35A-9C2D-4E59-9DFD-E53B166B7EC5/IntroductionLordYoungOfActon |date=28 January 2025 |jurisdiction=Parliament of the United Kingdom |house=House of Lords |volume=843 |column=115}}

In addition to the book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Young is the author of The Sound of No Hands Clapping (2006), How to Set Up a Free School (2011) and What Every Parent Needs to Know: How to Help Your Child Get the Most Out of Primary School (2014), which he co-wrote with Miranda Thomas.{{cite news|work=The Guardian | date=August 30, 2014 | title=Review: A reader lost and alienated: Zoe Williams is maddened by a nicey, twee book that's deeply reactionary: What Every Parent Needs to Know: How to Help Your Child Get the Most Out of Primary School by Toby Young and Miranda Thomas| author=Zoe Williams| page=6}}

British producer Stephen Woolley and his wife Elizabeth Karlsen produced the film adaptation How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) in conjunction with FilmFour. Young, who co-produced the film, was played by Simon Pegg.[http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=19321 "Simon Pegg is Toby Young in How to Lose Friends adaptation"], Empire, 14 August 2006. Retrieved 23 June 2007. It was released in Britain on 3 October 2008 and reached the number one spot at the box office in its opening week.[http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/article/14765/UK-Box-Office-3-5-October-2008 "UK Box Office: 3–5 October 2008"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100801015532/http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/article/14765/UK-Box-Office-3-5-October-2008 |date=1 August 2010 }}, BFI. Retrieved 14 February 2010.[https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2009/oct/06/uk-box-office-invention-lying "Ricky Gervais's clout at the UK box office is no lie"], The Guardian, 6 October 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2010. The film received mostly negative reviews{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/how_to_lose_friends_and_alienate_people/ |title=How to Lose Friends & Alienate People |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=14 January 2014}} and was a commercial failure, losing over £8 million.{{mojo title|id=howtolosefriends|title=How to Lose Friends & Alienate People}}

Young co-produced and co-wrote When Boris Met Dave (2009), a drama-documentary for Channel 4 about the relationship between Eton and Oxford University contemporaries Mayor Boris Johnson and Conservative Party Leader PM David Cameron. It was first broadcast on More4 on 7 October 2009 and later shown on Channel 4.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110615100322/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6864947.ece "Last Night's TV"], The Times, 8 October 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2010.

Before getting married, Young employed a Russian "daily" whom he later described as "a kind of surrogate mother". Young has since complained about the difficulty of finding reliable domestic staff.{{cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/03/the-daily-i-miss-every-day/|title=The daily I miss every day|work=The Spectator|language=en-US|access-date=5 September 2018}}

In 1997, Young met Caroline Bondy while living in New York.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/8489847/Toby-Young-British-women-are-the-best.html|title=Toby Young: British women are the best|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=8 May 2011|access-date=5 September 2018|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}} After they split up, Young gave up drinking, saying he "thought the only way I could persuade her to get back with me would be if I sobered up". He began drinking alcohol again two years later, on their wedding day in July 2001.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/03/healthandwellbeing|title=My body & soul: Toby Young, writer, 44|date=2 August 2008|website=The Guardian}} They have four children.{{cite news|last=Young|first=Toby|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/8489847/Toby-Young-British-women-are-the-best.html|title=Toby Young: British women are the best|work=The Sunday Telegraph|location=London|date=8 May 2011|access-date=8 December 2015}}

Young has admitted using cocaine at the Groucho Club in central London,{{cite news|last1=Milner|first1=Catherine|last2=Hastings|first2=Chris|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1361435/White-powder-scare-at-the-Groucho.html|title=White powder scare at the Groucho|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=4 November 2001|access-date=4 January 2018}} and also supplying drugs to others. He was subsequently expelled from membership of the club in late 2001 for writing about the cocaine use of friends he had supplied with the drug during a 1997 photo shoot for Vanity Fair.{{cite news|last=Young|first=Toby|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/nov/18/books.comment|title=I've been kicked out of the club|newspaper=The Observer|date=18 November 2001|access-date=4 January 2018}} Such activities are against Club rules.

Young has come under criticism for comments he made on Twitter, most of which were deleted upon his appointment to the Board of the Office for Students. Young said that he posted more than 56,000 tweets, of which 8,439 remained as at January 2018.

These included what an Evening Standard editorial called "an obsession with commenting on the anatomy of women in the public eye".{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/evening-standard-comment-there-s-method-behind-trump-s-twitter-war-a3730851.html|title=Evening Standard comment: There's method behind Trump's Twitter war|work=London Evening Standard|date=3 January 2018|access-date=3 January 2018}} He referred on Twitter to the cleavage of unnamed female MPs sitting behind Ed Miliband in the Commons in 2011 and 2012. When later challenged by Stella Creasy on Newsnight he said of the second such incident: "It wasn't my proudest moment".{{cite news|last=Kentish|first=Ben|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/toby-young-theresa-may-university-appointment-labour-demand-reverse-decision-a8138906.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/toby-young-theresa-may-university-appointment-labour-demand-reverse-decision-a8138906.html |archive-date=21 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Labour demands Theresa May reverse Toby Young appointment due to his 'misogyny and homophobia'|work=The Independent|date=3 January 2018|access-date=3 January 2018}}{{cite web|last=Belam|first=Martin|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/03/toby-young-quotes-on-breasts-eugenics-and-working-class-people|title=Toby Young quotes on breasts, eugenics and working-class people|work=The Guardian|date=3 January 2018|access-date=3 January 2018}} Other remarks included slurs described as homophobic, including a claim that George Clooney is "as queer as a coot".{{Cite news|url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/01/02/governments-new-university-regulator-appointee-called-lesbians-hard-core-dykes|title=Government's new university watchdog appointee called lesbians 'hard-core dykes'|work=PinkNews|access-date=3 January 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/05/ditch-toby-young-from-watchdog-board-top-labour-figures-tell-may|title=Ditch Toby Young from watchdog board, top Labour figures tell May|first=Kevin|last=Rawlinson|newspaper=The Guardian |date=5 January 2018|via=www.theguardian.com}}

One tweet by Young was in response to a BBC Comic Relief appeal in 2009 for starving Kenyan children.{{cite news|last=Grove|first=Jack|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/toby-young-quits-office-students-board-after-mps-debate|title=Toby Young quits Office for Students board after MPs' debate|work=Times Higher Education|date=9 January 2018|access-date=9 January 2018}} During the broadcast, a Twitter user commented that she had "gone through about 5 boxes of kleenex" whilst watching. Toby Young replied: "Me too, I {{sic|havn't}} wanked so much in ages".{{cite news|last=Kentish|first=Ben|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-toby-young-sack-fire-refuse-misogynistic-homophobic-sexist-andrew-marr-bbc-latest-a8146236.html|title=Theresa May refuses to sack Toby Young over misogynistic and homophobic tweets|work=The Independent|date=7 January 2018|access-date=9 January 2018}} He has expressed regret for his "politically incorrect" tweets.{{cite news|title=Toby Young regrets 'politically incorrect' comments|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42552884 |work=BBC News|date=3 January 2018|access-date=5 January 2018}}

Young is reported to have edited his own Wikipedia page 282 times over the course of six years.{{cite news|last=Booth|first=Robert|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/05/why-impulsive-vain-toby-young-wants-us-to-take-him-seriously|title=Why 'impulsive, vain' Toby Young wants us to take him seriously|work=The Guardian|date=5 January 2018|access-date=5 January 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://politicalscrapbook.net/2013/09/toby-young-has-edited-his-own-wikipedia-page-200-times-in-six-years/|title=Toby Young Has Edited His Own Wikipedia Page More Than 200 Times in the Last Six Years|work=Political Scrapbook|date=5 January 2013|access-date=5 January 2018}} In October 2020, he wrote an article in The Spectator criticising "lazy journalists [for whom] Wikipedia is the only thing they read when 'researching' an article" and stating that "Wikipedia has a strong left-wing bias — which might explain why the page about me reads as if it's been written by Owen Jones."{{cite journal|author= Toby Young| title= There's nothing neutral about Wikipedia| journal= The Spectator|url = https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/there-s-nothing-neutral-about-wikipedia|date = 2020-10-30|access-date = 2020-10-30}}

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