Thousands attend Jason Arday vigil in London
18/08/2026-16:00 18/08/2026-16:05 חדשות Channel Guardian News דיווח
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square in London to remember and pay tribute to Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor who died on Friday. Subscribe ► youtube.com
Stand Up to Racism, which organised the vigil, estimated that 30,000 mourners had gathered in the square to listen to emotional speeches from MPs, friends and campaigners on Arday’s life and legacy and join in a minute’s silence. Many were dressed in black and held flowers, which they were asked to leave beneath Nelson’s column. People also carried placards reading “rest in power”. Arday, 41, was pronounced dead after emergency services were called to his home in south London on Friday. He had resigned from his role as professor of sociology of education at Cambridge, after widespread scrutiny over accusations of plagiarism, which he rejected, and inconsistencies in statements about his career and achievements. Arday was initially accused of plagiarising another academic’s work for his PhD thesis. But he denied the accusations, and an investigation by Liverpool John Moores University earlier this year upheld its decision to award him a PhD. Simon Woolley, who was a mentor to Arday at Cambridge, said that when he had seen Arday shortly before his death, “we knew Jason was suffering” and feeling “hounded”, and he had hugged him. “We told him he was loved,” Woolley said. Remembering Arday as a “wonderful man [who] never stole a bag of crisps”, he urged that there “be some reckoning” after Arday’s death. But he added that it would be important to reflect on the role of “racism, institutional responsibility, accountability and the treatment of black families and black men” in Arday’s death, as well as why the “duty of care” to an autistic man known to be vulnerable had failed, potentially through a public inquiry. #jasonarday #professorjasonarday #uk #cambridgeuniversity #cambridge #london
Stand Up to Racism, which organised the vigil, estimated that 30,000 mourners had gathered in the square to listen to emotional speeches from MPs, friends and campaigners on Arday’s life and legacy and join in a minute’s silence. Many were dressed in black and held flowers, which they were asked to leave beneath Nelson’s column. People also carried placards reading “rest in power”. Arday, 41, was pronounced dead after emergency services were called to his home in south London on Friday. He had resigned from his role as professor of sociology of education at Cambridge, after widespread scrutiny over accusations of plagiarism, which he rejected, and inconsistencies in statements about his career and achievements. Arday was initially accused of plagiarising another academic’s work for his PhD thesis. But he denied the accusations, and an investigation by Liverpool John Moores University earlier this year upheld its decision to award him a PhD. Simon Woolley, who was a mentor to Arday at Cambridge, said that when he had seen Arday shortly before his death, “we knew Jason was suffering” and feeling “hounded”, and he had hugged him. “We told him he was loved,” Woolley said. Remembering Arday as a “wonderful man [who] never stole a bag of crisps”, he urged that there “be some reckoning” after Arday’s death. But he added that it would be important to reflect on the role of “racism, institutional responsibility, accountability and the treatment of black families and black men” in Arday’s death, as well as why the “duty of care” to an autistic man known to be vulnerable had failed, potentially through a public inquiry. #jasonarday #professorjasonarday #uk #cambridgeuniversity #cambridge #london
