Poland honours Sir Roger Scruton, ex-adviser sacked over Soros comments

Poland’s president has bestowed a prestigious state honour on a former UK Government adviser who was sacked over “unacceptable” comments made about Islamophobia.

President Andrzej Duda presented Sir Roger Scruton with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Sir Roger was fired as head of a public housing body in April after he reportedly said that homosexuality is “not normal”, called Islamophobia a “propaganda word” and said Hungarian Jews were part of an “empire” run by billionaire George Soros.

After his comments, a Board of Deputies spokesperson said: “As soon as we saw Sir Roger Scruton’s unacceptable comments we contacted Government to make our concerns heard.

“We are satisfied that the right decision has been made to dismiss him.”

Mr Duda said Sir Roger was recognised for supporting the democratic transformation in Poland. The ceremony came as Poland celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first partly free elections in the country after decades of communist rule.

Sir Roger has also reportedly said that the Chinese government was “creating robots out of their own people” and said date rape is not a crime.

At the time of his dismissal, a UK Government spokeswoman called Sir Roger’s comments “deeply offensive and completely unacceptable” and said they were distracting from his work as a government adviser.

Labour’s Dawn Butler said he was invoking the “language of white supremacists”.

Sir Roger has said in the past that his words have been twisted and has denied being anti-Semitic or Islamophobic.