Calls for PM to sack ‘misfit’ adviser who said unplanned pregnancies create ‘permanent underclass’

Andrew Sabisky was hired by Number 10 after the PM’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings called for “misfits and weirdos” to apply to advise the government.

He reportedly once suggested that the benefits of a purported cognitive enhancer, which can prove fatal, are “probably worth a dead kid once a year”.

Writing on Cummings’ website in 2014, he said: “One way to get around the problems of unplanned pregnancies creating a permanent underclass would be to legally enforce universal uptake of long-term contraception at the onset of puberty.

“Vaccination laws give it a precedent, I would argue.”

He also suggested black Americans have a lower average IQ than white Americans.

Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said: “There are really no words to describe Boris Johnson’s appointment as one of his senior advisers a man who is on record as supporting the forced sterilisation of people he considers not worthy.

“He must of course be removed from this position immediately.”

Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery said: “It is disgusting that not only has Number 10 failed to condemn Andrew Sabisky’s appalling comments, but also seems to have endorsed the idea that white people are more intelligent than black people.

“Boris Johnson should have the backbone to make a statement in his own words on why he has made this appointment, whether he stands by it, and his own views on the subject of eugenics.”

Geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford also criticised the comments, writing on Twitter: “Like Cummings, he appears to be bewitched by science, without having made the effort to understand the areas he is invoking, nor it’s history.”

He said the “moral repugnance” of the remarks was “overwhelming”, adding: “I am all for scientifically minded people advising government. In fact I am all for scientists advising government. From this perspective, Sabisky and indeed Cummings look bewitched by science without doing the legwork.

“Instead this resembles the marshalling of misunderstood or specious science into a political ideology. The history here is important, because this process is exactly what happened at the birth of scientific racism and the birth of eugenics.”

It is understood special advisers are prepared to boycott meetings where Sabisky is present and refuse to reply to any emails he sends.

Downing Street repeatedly refused to say whether Boris Johnson supported the views expressed by Andrew Sabisky.

A Number 10 spokesman said: “I’m not going to be commenting on individual appointments.”

Asked whether Johnson agreed with Sabisky’s comments on eugenics or the IQ of black people, the spokesman said: “The prime minister’s views on a range of subjects are well publicised and documented.”