Academic Roger Scruton has been fired as a government housing adviser after an interview in which he claimed George Soros had an "empire" in Hungary and that the word Islamophobia was "invented".

"Anybody who doesn’t think that there’s a Soros empire in Hungary has not observed the facts," Prof Scruton told the New Statesman, in a manner the magazine called "heedless of the antisemitic portrayal of the philanthropist George Soros as a Jewish puppet-master".

Prof Scruton, who chaired the Government's commission meant to drive house-building, also said the word Islamophobia was "invented by the Muslim Brotherhood in order to stop discussion" and said it was "very frightening" how "each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one".

Within hours of the interview being published on Wednesday, the government confirmed Prof Scruton had been dismissed from his part-time role.

A spokesperson said: "Professor Sir Roger Scruton has been dismissed as Chairman of the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission with immediate effect, following his unacceptable comments."

A Board of Deputies spokesperson said: "As soon as we saw Roger Scruton’s unacceptable comments we contacted the government to make our concerns heard.

"We are satisfied the right decision has been made to dismiss him."

Shortly after Prof Scruton's appointment in November, a speech he had given resurfaced in which he told a Hungarian audience: "Many of the Budapest intelligentsia are Jewish, and form part of the extensive networks around the Soros Empire."