OXFORD’S universities have rejected a request from an MP for details about academics teaching about Brexit.

Government whip Chris Heaton-Harris wrote to every vice-chancellor in the country asking for academics' names and their syllabuses.

Oxford University chancellor Chris Patten, who himself is a former Tory MP, said the request was ‘absolutely disgraceful’ and ‘Leninism’, while Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran said Mr Heaton-Harris should be sacked over the 'chilling letters’.

Both Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities said they would not be providing Mr Heaton-Harris, who voted leave in the EU referendum, with the information.