The former columnist for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times who suggested at the weekend that the BBC presenters Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz earned high salaries because they are Jewish has said he is 'very, very sorry'.
Kevin Myers, a freelance writer who the Sunday Times has said will not be employed again by the paper, bizarrely claimed to the Irish broadcaster RTÉ that he had 'uttered those words out of respect for the religion'.
In the column that caused widespread outrage – entitled, 'Sorry, ladies – equal pay has to be earned' – Myers wrote of Winkleman and Feltz: 'Good for them. 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.'
The overall editor of the Sunday Times, Martin Ivens, has apologised personally to the two presenters and said that the piece should not have been published.
Meanwhile the editor of the Sunday Times Ireland, Frank Fitzgibbon, said he took 'full responsibility', adding: 'This newspaper abhors anti-Semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people.'
In his RTE radio interview today, Myers said that it was 'over for him professionally', adding: 'I'm the master of my soul and I must answer for what I have done.'
Asked by the presenter Sean O'Rourke if the Sunday Times was right to fire him, Myers replied: 'Yeah, I think so.'
Myers, who has been accused of being a Holocaust denier, insisted that he was not antisemitic and apologised to both women.
'I've got serious professional flaws,' he said. 'I'm not sure that anyone is going to see those professional flaws in future, because I'm not sure I have a career in which to show them.'
The writer added that one of his flaws was to deal with major issues with throwaway lines. 'The throwaway line is so often my pitfall, my downfall,' he said, blaming his own 'stupidity'.
Myers continued: 'I'm not sure if there is any redemption for me now which will give a lot of people satisfaction...It's over for me professionally as far as I can see. I am really really sorry.'
Feltz has described the article as 'so obviously racist, it's surprisingly hurtful'.
The piece was taken down following a formal complaint from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism to the press regulator Ipso.
