Four senior members of the Oxford University Conservative Association are reportedly resigning over anti-Semitism, debauchery and snobbery that they say has emerged among members of the club.
According to a report by The Daily Telegraph, the four senior members announced their resignation after members attending the club's alcohol-fuelled meetings allegedly sang a Nazi-themed song and after a group of public school graduates ridiculed members from working-class backgrounds.
“I am committed to the Conservative Party but this association has come to represent everything we’re supposed to stand against,” Joe Cooke, who was president of OUCA during this year’s spring term, told The Daily Telegraph.
Cooke told The Daily Telegraph he was quitting "because of the extent of the debauchery” at meetings, where the annual bill for port runs to £10,000. "It has become more like a pub than a political association,” he said.
The association, which was founded in 1924 and whose patron is Baroness Thatcher, has two prime ministers and 13 cabinet members among its alumni.
According to The Daily Telegraph, an OUCD officer said its members regularly sang a song at its "port and policy" meetings that includes the words, "Dashing through the Reich…killing lots of kike (Jews).” The Daily Telegraph also claimed to have been shown a video of one OUCD member reciting the first line of the song before a friend silences him, saying "No, no!"
In light of the discriminative behavior, students are now facing possible disciplinary action by both Oxford University and the Conservative Party, who have both launched investigations, reported the Daily Telegraph.
This is not the first time the association has been accused of racism. According to The Daily Telegraph, four OUCA members were expelled in 2000 for making "Nazi-style solutes" and in 2009, Oxford University reportedly banned the OUCA from using "Oxford University" in its name after two candidates made racist jokes at hustings meetings.
