The Conservative peer Lord Young of Graffham has resigned as an economics adviser to David Cameron after commenting that people hit by the recession “have never had it so good”.
The Prime Minister has accepted Lord Young’s resignation from the unpaid role, just hours after he said the Jewish peer would be “doing a bit less speaking in future".
Labour politicians criticised him for displaying "complete indifference” after the peer told the Daily Telegraph that “this so-called recession” had actually had a positive impact on some people.
He said this was “because anybody, most people with a mortgage who were paying a lot of money each month, suddenly started paying very little each month.”
Lord Young apologised for making the "insensitive and inaccurate" comment, but after giving the matter further consideration offered to step down as well.
Mr Cameron said of the gaffe: "Obviously he's extremely embarrassed.
“He's apologised for what he said, and that's absolutely right."
Lord Young is the chairman of the Jewish Museum in Camden. He was a cabinet minister in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher'
