Calls for public inquiry into Jason Arday 'witchhunt'

Public figures and friends of Jason Arday have called for a public inquiry into media coverage surrounding the former Cambridge professor, after he was found dead on Friday.

Labour MP Diane Abbott and actress Jameela Jamil are among 30,000 signatories of a letter to the prime minister and culture secretary, which claims Arday's death followed "two weeks of relentless harassment".

The letter, issued by the campaign group Good Law Project - which had been representing Arday after he stood down from his Cambridge role amid a plagiarism row - said many of its signatories had privately warned media outlets about the intensity of their reporting.

Lord Simon Woolley, principal of Homerton College, Cambridge said Arday had been subjected to a "toxic, vicious witchhunt".

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Green Party leader Zack Polanski, and Labour MPs Bell Ribiero-Addy, Clive Lewis and Nadia Whittome are among the politicians to have signed the statement, alongside former England footballer Eni Aluko, National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede, and broadcaster Carol Vorderman.

It calls for an "immediate public inquiry into how to ensure a responsible press".