Critics slam Sunday Times for ‘offensive’ article on women and Jews in BBC pay row

Newspaper editors said article 'should not have been published'

The offensive column in question

A Sunday Times article headlined “Sorry ladies – equal pay has to be earned” has been criticised for its anti-Semitic and sexist content.

The article, by holocaust denier Kevin Myers, pointed to Claudia Winkelman and Vanessa Feltz, who are among the top-earning women at the BBC.

“Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity,” he wrote.

“I wonder, who are their agents? If they’re the same ones that negotiated the pay for the women on the lower scales, then maybe the latter have found their true value in the marketplace.

"Yet even using that word 'marketplace' in the absurd world of the BBC is like putting 'common sense' and 'egalitarian feminism' in the one sentence without a negative, or collapsing with laughter."

He added that men tend to be paid more because they "work harder, get sick less frequently and seldom get pregnant" and are "more ambitious".

The article has been removed.

Martin Ivens, editor of the Sunday Times, said the comments "were unacceptable and should not have been published. It has been taken down and we sincerely apologise both for the remarks and the error of judgement that led to publication”.

Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of the Sunday Times in Ireland, said he apologised "unreservedly for the offence caused by comments in a column written by Kevin Myers and published today".

He added: "It contained views that have caused considerable distress and upset to a number of people. As the editor of the Ireland edition I take full responsibility for this error of judgement. This newspaper abhors anti-semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people.”

The columnist’s name became a top trend on Twitter. Social media users were quick to take pictures of the piece and share it online, questioning why the article was given the green light by editors.

Cookbook writer and activist Jack Monroe commented: "It all becomes clear. Decent people of Britain, meet Kevin Myers. Holocaust denier, anti Semite, sneering white man."

Curtis Brown joint-CEO and literary agent Jonny Geller added: "This is unacceptable from the Irish version of Sunday Times. Why tolerate casual anti-semitism like this?"

Guardian journalist Marina Hyde said: “Amazed this disgrace made it into the paper. But instructive that it did.”

Myers has a controversial history, including a piece in 2008 where he wrote: “Africa is giving nothing to anyone – apart from Aids.”

Myers’ 2009 article that denied the Holocaust, published by the Belfast Telegraph, was taken down following the furore on Sunday.

“There was no holocaust, (or Holocaust, as my computer software insists) and six million Jews were not murdered by the Third Reich,” he wrote. “These two statements of mine are irrefutable truths […].”

In 2005, the Irish Times came under fire for publishing his column, which called children of single mothers “bastards”.

It is not clear whether Myers has been reprimanded or will continue to be employed at the newspaper.