SCHOLARS at Oxford University have distanced themselves from a 'racist' fellow professor who tried to defend the British Empire.

Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of moral and pastoral theology, was lambasted after an article in the Times newspaper arguing Britain needed to feel less guilty about the history of empire.

In his piece he wrote: “If we believe what strident anti-colonialists tell us — namely, that our imperial past was one long, unbroken litany of oppression, exploitation and self-deception — then our guilt will make us vulnerable to wilful manipulation, and it will confirm us in the belief that the best way we can serve the world is by leaving it well alone.”

Mr Biggar is running a five-year 'Empire and Ethics' programme through his McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life.

Oxford race rights group Common Ground described the column as 'racist' and accused Professor Biggar of 'whitewashing'.

In the letter on The Conversation website, 60 academics in Modern History called Biggar’s project 'simplistic' and claimed it could hurt the university. The scholars said they were not challenging free speech, but bad ideas based on ignorance and belief rather than fact.

Dan Iley-Williamson, city councillor who is also a politics lecturer at the university, said Biggar was an 'ardent apologist for colonialism'.