James O'Brien says he feels 'like a mug' for defending 'plagiarism' professor Jason Arday

Published: 23:35, 7 August 2026 | Updated: 23:36, 7 August 2026 James O'Brien has said he feels 'like a mug' for defending the Cambridge University professor accused of plagiarism and fabrication. The LBC presenter, who previously accused newspapers of 'studied and deliberate ignominy' over reporting of Jason Arday, said he had a 'very, very personal' reaction to the professor's resignation on Wednesday. But Mr O'Brien also said he did not 'feel guilt' and suggested that only a racist would have doubted Mr Arday's credibility as a Cambridge professor of sociology of education. The professor, who had been the university's youngest black incumbent, resigned this week after Cambridge began an investigation into allegations of plagiarism. He said the storm surrounding his claims had come at a 'personal cost'. 'What's your takeaway here?' Mr O'Brien asked listeners on Friday. 'Because mine is very, very personal. I can't separate the personal from the public. I feel like a mug, actually, is the short answer.' But he added: 'I don't feel guilt. I don't feel, "Oh, you should have done differently or you should have done better" because, who would? James O'Brien said he was left feeling 'like a mug' after defending former Cambridge University professor Jason Arday Mr Arday faced allegations he exaggerated a string of claims about his personal life and plagiarised tracts of his PhD thesis  'Who would meet a Cambridge professor and immediately start thinking, "God, I wonder whether you actually deserve to be there?" I certainly wouldn't do that.' 'If I was a racist and I met a black Cambridge professor, then I probably would find myself thinking, "Yeah, really, a black guy, professor, I don't think…" – but I'm not a racist, so it didn't cross my mind. 'But it's more the personal contact that I've had with him subsequently that makes me feel like a mug. The fact that he thought I was someone that he might be able to persuade to stick up for him when he knew that he'd done wrong.' Since Mr Arday's resignation it has emerged he claimed to have locked-in syndrome and testicular cancer in a book proposal for his memoir. The anecdotes appeared in a 2024 proposal for Great and Unfortunate Things, which is due to be published next week, but not in the final version. There are also other inconsistencies between the two versions of events in terms of dates and characters, US magazine The Atlantic reported. Mr Arday had initially faced allegations he had plagiarised tracts of his PhD thesis from research by another student. Mr Arday resigned from Cambridge on Wednesday after the university said it would investigate his conduct Your browser does not support iframes. Other claims he made about his personal life then came under fire, including that he ran 600 miles in six days and personally raised millions for charity. He also boasted of appearing in the television series Seven Up despite the fact it was first broadcast more than 20 years before his birth in 1985. Universities including Glasgow, Durham and Ohio State in the US also rebuffed Mr Arday's claims to have held academic positions within their institutions. After Cambridge announced it would investigate Mr Arday's conduct on Wednesday evening, he resigned as a professor. In a statement he said: 'While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement. 'The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love. 'This decision should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship or in the values that first brought me to Cambridge. Nor should it be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me. 'It is simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure.'