New calls for Tory housing czar to quit after he says ‘being gay takes 10 years off life’

The Tories’ housing czar Sir Roger Scruton today faced renewed calls to resign after critics unearthed further “offensive” comments he made about race and homosexuality.

The philosopher and architectural expert has so far been defended by the Government for his published views, which include remarks that being gay was “not normal”, that Islamophobia is a “propaganda word” and date rape was not a crime.

Today, articles written for an American conservative journal emerged, including a claim that homosexuality contributed to knocking “ten years off your life expectancy”.

In a 2001 article for City Journal, an urban policy magazine based in New York, Sir Roger contrasted the public health approach to smoking with the “pussyfooting over Aids”.

“The fact that the promiscuous habits of many male homosexuals have greatly advanced this disease has done nothing to make Nanny warn against homosexuality or against exposing young people, even children, to its allure.”

In the same article, he claimed that people live “longer, happier, and healthier lives” if they are in “a stable marriage if they have the support of a religion, and if they adhere to the traditional sexual code”.

Disabled people were the focus of a piece written in 1999 for the same journal, in a reaction to the furore over comments made by Glen Hoddle, then England coach.

He wrote: “Recently Glen Hoddle, the English soccer coach, expressed the view (perfectly acceptable when uttered by a representative of some ethnic minority) that disabled people are suffering in this life for sins committed in another.”

In April this year, at a lecture at Muslim Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, Sir Roger suggested one of the 9/11 terrorists Mohamed Atta, who studied architecture at Hamburg, was “taking revenge on an architectural practice which had been introduced into the Middle East by Le Corbusier”.

Earlier this month, he described Tower Hamlets in London as “one of the most crime-ridden and disastrous areas of the capital”, adding: “One which, not only is avoided by everybody because it looks so awful, but from which people flee as soon as they can when they’ve been put there by the social housing machine.”

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s shadow communities secretary, today said housing minister James Brokenshire must intervene to overturn Sir Roger’s appointment as chairman of the Building Better, Building Beautiful commission. He added: “That Tory ministers continue to defend his appointment ... is offensive to the very communities they claim to represent.”

LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “If he still has the same odious opinions and is not willing to say sorry, I do not see how he can hold an official position given by a government that it committed to equality and inclusion.”

Sir Roger Scruton

Sir Roger was appointed earlier this month to oversee the commission to improve design quality in the UK. In a statement posted on his website, Sir Roger blamed a “leftist rabble” for refusing to accept his appointment.