The Times has followed up on Terrence Kealey’s tour de force in The Critic’s June issue on the decline and fall of Buckingham (“A lesson in how to ruin a good university”). But unfortunately Parliament Square has to report, once and current Vice-Chancellor James Tooley is in no way safe yet from his enemies within.
Twice in the last two years, factional opponents of Professor Tooley, including Chris Payne (Registrar), Harriet Dunbar-Morris (Pro Vice-Chancellor), and two members of the University’s Council (The Hon. Camilla Soames DL (Vice-Chair) and Chris Hollis (Chair of Audit and Risk Committee), have unsuccessfully sought to remove Professor Tooley as Vice-Chancellor.
There has been an overt hostility towards Tooley’s philosophical stance in favour of freedom of expression and academic enquiry. In one, Mr Payne refers to Professor Tooley as being too Thatcherite for the University (which, of course, was granted its Royal Charter in 1983, while Mrs T was PM, and is the institution she became Chancellor of after she left 10 Downing Street).
Having historic connections to Number 10 hardly guarantees support for Professor Tooley, as amongst his sternest critics in the upper echelons of the University of Buckingham has been Milly Soames — presently a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and the wife of Rupert Soames (the Chairman of the Confederation of British Industry, and, Churchill’s grandson).
The first attempted heave
During 2022 there was a concerted effort to remove Professor Tooley, culminating in the resignation of the Acting Chair of Council, Joe Harrison, on 10 October 2022, when he realised that Professor Tooley was not going to resign voluntarily and that he would not have enough votes on the University’s Council to ensure the Vice-Chancellor’s removal.
The ostensible reason for seeking to remove Tooley was that the University was not in great shape. However, to any disinterested observer, or, indeed, to expert and well-informed ones such as Terence Kealey, it was clear that the incumbent VC had inherited a mess in 2020 when he took over from Sir Anthony Seldon.
Professor Tooley continues to be shut out of meetings that the rules provide he ought to attend
One telling indicator was that the 2019 financial statements showed a deficit of £20 million, on income of only £40 million. The University was also in trouble with its regulators, connected with the ill-advised and hugely loss-making foray into a northern campus. COVID-19 lockdowns were also in full swing, slowing down any turnaround project.
Any fair-minded onlooker would have recognised the progress that Professor Tooley was already making. Although there were delays in setting out the full financial picture, so that only management accounts were available in 2002, it’s now clear that even by the end of 2021, the University was being successfully turned around.
By the end of the 2021 financial year, income was £43.5 million, student numbers had increased by 11.5 per cent on the previous year to 3,289, £17.8 million in loans had been repaid, with the surplus standing at a highly creditable £5.8 million. Yet far from backing the energetic Tooley, 2022 saw the first effort to remove him.
We can only speculate about any other underlying reasons why his colleagues were so determined, and at whatever cost out of university funds, to be rid of James Tooley. A protected disclosure (i.e. whistle blowing) and grievance complaints procedure was taken out against Professor Tooley by Chris Payne, who remains Registrar even to this day. And by another senior colleague “X” who, for reasons of confidentiality outlined below, won’t be named in this special report.
It was clear that X’s complaints were not unknown to the then Acting Chair of Council. For instance, on 6 April 2022 at 4.30 pm, with Mr Harrison, discussions showed that that colleague was taking his advice on whether or not to put in an official grievance and whistle-blowing against Professor Tooley.
It was in this meeting that Mr Harrison tells Professor Tooley’s senior colleague that “if the trustees had to make a choice”, it would be for that colleague and Mr Payne to take over running the university from Professor Tooley. Indication of the same kind of discussion is evidenced in a letter from that senior colleague to Mr Harrison, showing that that colleague had taken his advice.
The complaints focused largely on managerial matters, problems with the northern campus, a pay increase for one of the complainants, and so on. However, one of the key issues raised by Professor Tooley’s senior colleague X (and one of Mr Payne’s grievances was that Professor Tooley was not supporting that colleague) concerned the so-called Report and Support website.
This website was used by several universities to allow students and staff alike to report any issues with which they might feel uncomfortable, such as harassment and discrimination. In Professor Tooley’s view, Report and Support is a good litmus test of how much a university values free speech. It brings to the fore the tension between the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 and the academic freedom and freedom of speech provisions in the Education (No. 2) Act 1986.
Professor Tooley’s senior colleague and Mr Payne were in favour of introducing Report and Support at the University, whereas Professor Tooley was opposed, and this was one of the major issues of complaint by his senior colleague.
Importantly, neither of these sets of complaints were upheld by independent investigators in July 2022. However, despite this welcome outcome, the moves to remove Professor Tooley continued — which is surprising if the issues highlighted in the whistleblowing complaints process were solely those at stake.
Professor Tooley’s senior colleague left office soon thereafter and brought an employment claim against the University and Professor Tooley. The documents disclosed in those proceedings cannot be provided to any third party without an order from the tribunal, but they speak forcibly to the ongoing efforts to undermine and remove James Tooley from his role as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham.
I Spy Thatcherites
In one email Mr Payne wrote to the then Chair of Council (Mark Rawlison) and the then Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee (Penny Jones), copying in Professor Tooley’s senior colleague. In this message, Mr Payne lists a series of complaints about Professor Tooley’s management of the University (although he did concede that some of the problems are to do with inherited issues). However, one of his chief complaints was that some of the problems are the “direct result of an all-too visible preference for certain ideological viewpoints and a confirmation bias toward those with the same views.”
Further outline of what these supposed “ideological viewpoints” were was contained in a subsequent email later that month. Here, Mr Payne wrote to Professor Tooley’s senior colleague, copying Mr Rawlinson and Ms Jones, listing a whole set of issues, together with some solutions. Again, there appears to be universal approval of his analysis.
One of the major problems, Mr Payne, says is: “Ideology [is] too prominent in decision-making. Prominence of Thatcherite thinking which is by no means universally supported. Insufficient distinction between the VC’s beliefs and university values — e.g., it is well known, even publicised, that the VC believes the Equality Act to be wrong-headed [see discussion above about Report and Support]; for too many this comes across as an endorsement of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Freedom of speech is promoted but again conflated with some supposed right to expression free from consequence.”
One of the ways in which Professor Tooley had demonstrated his commitment to free speech and academic freedom by this time was in the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Tony (now Lord) Sewell in the July 2022 graduation ceremonies. Sewell had been denied such an honour by his alma mater, the University of Nottingham, which objected to the conclusions of the enquiry he led into racial and ethnic disparities in education and other areas.
The headline of a July 2022 Telegraph opinion piece was “Buckingham University shows how we can fight the culture war”, praising Professor Tooley for his leadership in standing up against what the author (Inaya Folarin Iman) described as the “woke” brigade. Mr Payne, Mr Harrison and Professor Tooley’s senior colleague expressed verbal dissatisfaction to him about this article, even to the extent of claiming that it somehow risked offending the University’s ethnic minority students and staff.
One other person who also expressed dissatisfaction was Mrs Soames who, along with Mr Payne, is one of the key overlapping players in the attempts made between 2022 and 2024 to remove James Tooley as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham.
Camilla Soames was appointed Acting Vice-Chair on 7 July 2022 (she had previously been an independent Council member, but evidently had the support of her peers sufficient to be made Acting Vice-Chair). In this capacity, she came officially to visit Professor Tooley with the then Acting Chair, Mr Harrison, in the Vice-Chancellor’s office on 25 July 2022 at 3 pm. Given that by this date he had just received the outcomes of the two whistle-blowing concerns raised, which found conclusively that there was no case whatsoever for him to answer, Tooley assumed that the meeting would be one where the desire to move on was agreed upon, and ways would be sought of trying to work together properly and constructively in the interests of the University and its staff, students and donors.
Instead, the formal outcome of the whistle-blowing investigation notwithstanding, the University’s foremost members continued to put pressure on him to resign. Claiming amongst other things that there were going to be some senior resignations soon, that a number of people on the University’s Council were now against his leadership, and that Professor Tooley would find it hard to ride out the ensuing storm.
In fact, Mr Harrison had already by then received the resignation from Professor Tooley’s senior colleague as Pro Vice-Chancellor on 22 July 2022, but oddly he concealed that fact from Professor Tooley at that time.
This was the third attempt made by Mrs Soames to put pressure on Professor Tooley to resign. She had previously come to visit him in his office, on 5 May 2022 at 10.34 am, with Mark Rushton, who was the Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee. Soames and Rushton were as one in encouraging Professor Tooley to resign. The second visit by Soames and Rushton was on or about 6 June 2022, again to put pressure on Professor Tooley to resign.
In evidence given to the tribunal, Professor Tooley disclosed a record of a call that a senior colleague had with Ms Jones in July 2022. The record relates that “Joe and Milly spoke with the VC today. He was v-Boris-like, believing Exe and Senate are behind him, his only problem is Council.” This was, as to its material content, factually true — the University’s Senate, the supreme academic governing body of the university, and the Executive, were very much behind Professor Tooley.
His senior colleague’s note continues: “Joe [Acting Chair] is trying to organize a Council meeting at the end of the week for a vote of no confidence [in Tooley] but if they do not get a two-third majority, will try to neutralize the VC.” Indeed, a meeting was held on 29 July 2022, while Professor Tooley was busy with an intense week of graduations and “homecomings’ after lockdowns. Self-evidently, Mr Harrison, Ms Jones and Mrs Soames were not successful in gaining the two-thirds majority to secure Professor Tooley’s removal as Vice-Chancellor.
The attempt to oust Tooley in 2024 turned on allegations raised by the Vice Chancellor’s estranged wife
No rest for the wicked
Professor Tooley had appointed Mr Payne as Registrar and Director of Professional Services on 1 January 2021, a position he holds to this day (with a name change for role to being “Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer”.) He was one of three people who took on the role of the interim replacement whilst Professor Tooley was suspended, during the upheavals brought forth from his private life.
It’s an embarrassing fact that we now know from the latest Financial Statements filed by the University that Mr Payne received enhanced remuneration during his period as “Interim Vice-Chancellor” (see page 43).
This detail, however, was never discussed by the Council of the University, was not made known to Professor Tooley or his lawyers, and was directly contradicted by the emails copiously sent by the new regime to all staff and students at the University while Professor Tooley was suspended.
After the meeting of 25 July 2022, the pressure continued on Professor Tooley until Mr Harrison resigned, and the new Chair of Council, Mark St John Qualter, was brought in on 12 December 2022 (Mrs Soames having been Acting Chair of Council during the interregnum).
Initially, this seemed to usher in a new era. Camila Soames was duly elected Vice-Chair with effect from 27 February 2023, and for over a year there appeared to be calm. Notably, it was clear by early 2024 that Professor Tooley had indeed succeeded in turning the University around, and that his earlier achievements were no mere blip. Additionally the University had been shortlisted for the “University of the Year” award in The Times, and from being on the regulator’s “naughty step”, the regulator was now seeking advice from the Vice-Chancellor concerning university turn-arounds. Professor Tooley consequently made more moves to enhance the position of the University of Buckingham as a leader in free speech and academic freedom.
One major step was the creation of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science, led by Professor Eric Kaufmann. This was designed to challenge the rise of a stifling, politically correct orthodoxy in the social sciences. Inevitably this initiative, though entirely in keeping with the fine, heterodox traditions of Buckingham, met with hostility from some of its Council members.
Professors Tooley and Kaufmann were interviewed by The Times in February 2024. Instead of welcoming the positive publicity this article generated, the Chair of Council failed to support Professor Tooley in a hostile Council meeting that took place on 24 February 2024. Most hostile of all was Chris Hollis, but many members were, including Mrs Soames.
On subsequent occasions Professor Tooley was told by Mr Qualter that certain unnamed members of Council had threatened to resign because of the work of Eric Kaufmann’s Centre and its “antiwoke” stance.
The second great part of Tooley’s freedom agenda was the launch by the University of the Margaret Thatcher Chair for the Constitution of Liberty. This had already been one of the reasons behind dissatisfaction with Professor Tooley’s leadership dating back to 2022. At the Council meeting of 21 February 2022, for example, Professor Tooley told the Council that this Chair was one of the strategic things on which he was working. There was disapproval from, among others, Ms Jones, who said it would be “politically divisive”. The minutes are anodyne on this, but there will be witnesses who can attest to the hostility expressed.
By 2024 (and not least after a reception at 10 Downing Street in the summer of 2023), Professor Tooley had raised sufficient funds to launch the Chair. At the Council meeting of 7 August 2024, he presented a paper on Independence and Academic Freedom, and their importance as founding principles of the University. This time Mrs Soames led the disapproval of the Margaret Thatcher Chair, saying something along the lines that “perhaps Professor Tooley should realise it was only he that was interested in this project”.
Going through all the proper processes and procedures at the University, Professor Tooley set out to appoint Ayaan Hirsi Ali to be the first Margaret Thatcher Chair. The final paperwork was due to go through the Recruitment Panel on 16 October 2024. Like any good academic politician, Professor Tooley had made sure that the small panel, which he chaired, was fully onside and that approval would be a formality. Still sharper operators ensured that Professor Tooley was suspended on 11 October 2024, and so was unable to appoint Ms Hirsi Ali to the post.
Almost as gruesomely, an event had been scheduled for 29 November 2024 at the House of Lords to celebrate Hirsi Ali’s appointment. This was cancelled by the University on 15 October 2024. Even though any event at the House of Lords has to be organised through a Peer, the University purported to instruct administrative staff at the Lords not to inform Lord Hannan, who had organised the event, about the cancellation.
The smoking gun
Infamously, the attempt to oust Tooley in 2024 turned on allegations raised by the Vice Chancellor’s estranged wife. These occurred in a very specific employment law context. With the University’s most senior members knowing that Professor Tooley should no longer be considered to be on a fixed-term contract (which would have expired on 30 September 2025) but was instead a permanent employee. Professor Tooley had indicated that he was not considering moving on in 2025 and that he sought to remain as Vice-Chancellor for some years to come.
In the run-up to Professor Tooley’s suspension, four things occurred:
# in the previous few months, Tooley had, within his powers as Vice-Chancellor, appointed two prominent academics — Professor Eric Kaufmann and Professor Matt Goodwin;
# a week or so before his suspension, Professor Tooley was informed by Mark St John Qualter, the Chair of Council, that, upon the termination of what he considered to be Professor Tooley’s fixed term contract in September 2025, the role of Vice-Chancellor would be redefined in a way that would in all likelihood mean that Professor Tooley would not be in a position to apply for a second five-year term. During this conversation, Professor Tooley informed him that, in fact, as he had the benefit of two or more fixed term contracts that had now run for a period of more than four years, he was, as a matter of law, a permanent employee of the University (this, of course, would make it far harder for opponents of Tooley to secure departure from the University other than on disciplinary grounds);
# on 14 October 2024, the University’s Council was to have discussed a paper tabled by Professor Tooley which, among other matters, was to have explored the feasibility and desirability of the University becoming a for-profit body (a move which would have seen and/or still might see the existing charity receiving millions of pounds from any buyers or investors into the for-profit entity which money would then be available to fund scholarships and bursaries for bright or poorer students);
# on 16 October 2024, the appropriate University committee was due to have voted on formally appointing Ayaan Hirsi Ali as the inaugural holder of the Margaret Thatcher Chair for the Constitution of Liberty (a vote that the Vice-Chancellor would easily have won).
This then was where Tooley’s defences stood.
One more heave
Since Professor Tooley was exonerated by a KC’s report into the allegations made by his estranged wife, which has been so readily seized upon by his University opponents, a further attempt has begun at the University of Buckingham to remove Professor Tooley once and for all.
This is being done despite the very serious damage caused by the University to Professor Tooley’s physical and mental health. After his exoneration by the Council on 27 January 2025, Professor Tooley enjoyed a phased return to work during February.
At a recent graduation ceremony, a donor, Ronel Lehman, praised Professor Tooley’s fortitude to the wider University there assembled. The Registrar, also on the stage, kept shaking his head, remarked loudly in front of students that the donor’s remarks were a disgrace, and that he did not care who heard what he said, and he hoped the place burnt down. Professor Tooley began disciplinary proceedings in respect of these remarks being made in this manner by Mr Payne but when the Registrar himself then put in yet another grievance against Professor Tooley, the University’s HR department determined that nothing could be done to discipline Mr Payne until his grievance had been determined.
Professor Tooley continues to be shut out of meetings that, as Vice-Chancellor, the Ordinances and Statutes of the University, a registered charity founded by royal charter, provide he ought to attend.
One such committee, the Nominations & Governance Committee, has summoned Professor Tooley to attend before it this week on Wednesday 25 June, in order to resolve whether he ought to be reappointed as Vice-Chancellor. Even though he is a permanent employee, the University seems set on purporting to terminate his appointment with effect from December 2025, even if it results in a large payoff and/or litigation. Having spent over £250,000 on the KC’s investigation, now the University seems set to spend a further six-figure sum in paying off Professor Tooley just to get rid of him.
Buckingham was founded to be different. It is the country home of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Margaret Thatcher spoke at its launch in 1976, procured its royal charter in 1983, and was its Chancellor after leaving 10 Downing Street. It is the last bastion of free speech and academic freedom in England. If Professor Tooley is removed as Vice-Chancellor as part of this latest effort, Buckingham is lost.
