A CONFERENCE at a university in London is being investigated over claims that some of the academics involved are associated with the far right.

The London Conference on Intelligence, which is held annually at the University College London (UCL) and discusses eugenics, features talks by a secretive group of white supremacists with neonazi links.

One, Richard Lynn, has called for the “phasing out” of the “populations of incompetent cultures,” and spoke at the conference in 2015 and 2016.

He is president of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, which runs the journal Mankind Quarterly, whose founders included a leading member of Italian fascist leader Mussolini’s eugenics group. 

The institute is bankrolled by the Pioneer Fund, a hate group founded by nazi sympathisers. The fund has also paid to host conferences with deposed BNP leader Nick Griffin and former KKK grand wizard David Duke.

Other speakers and attendees over the years include a self-taught geneticist who has been known to argue in favour of child rape and disgraced free schools advocate Toby Young.

Emil Kirkegaard, one of the conference organisers, once posted an image on his Facebook page of a friend’s nazi salute.

UCL professor David Colquhoun expressed disbelief that the university would host such “pseudoscience” and stated that the organiser, Professor James Thompson, “clearly doesn’t understand genetics.”

Aiysha Qureshi, welfare and international officer at UCL students’ union, told the Star: “We are disgusted by the revelations and are stunned as to how such an event was able to proceed on campus in the face of institutional regulations.

“The union will be taking a strong stance in seeking explanations as to why a university with historically racist ties could allow space for this to happen in the present day.”

A spokesperson for lecturers’ union UCU said: “Universities must take care not to undermine their credibility by being associated with, or giving credence to, pseudoscience or racism.” 

UCL said in a statement that it is investigating a potential breach of its room bookings process for events and has suspended approval for conferences similar in nature by the honorary lecturer and speakers.

It said: “The conferences were booked and paid for as an external event and without our officials being told of the details. They were therefore not approved or endorsed by UCL.

“We are an institution that is committed to free speech but also to combating racism and sexism in all forms."