Nobel winner quits Oxford poetry race over sex claims

Walcott, the front-runner for the post, announced today to the Evening Standard his decision to stand down as a candidate.

His withdrawal follows a campaign against him before Saturday's election. Documents including an allegation of sexual harassment dating back to 1982 were sent anonymously to Oxford academics who, with graduates, vote on the position.

Walcott, 79, said: "I withdraw from the election to be Professor of Poetry at Oxford. I am disappointed that such low tactics have been used in this election and I do not want to get into a race for a post where it causes embarrassment to those who have chosen to support me for the role, or to myself.

"I already have a great many work commitments and while I was happy to be put forward for the post, if it has degenerated into a low and degrading attempt at character assassination, I do not want to be part of it."

His departure from the election leaves his rival, Ruth Padel, as clear favourite to be voted to the chair of poetry. The London poet, visibly upset by Walcott's decision to quit, today dismissed any suggestion that she or her supporters were responsible for the campaign against him.

She told the Standard: "This is dreadful. My proposers are devastated because they have bent over backwards to run a clean campaign. On the one hand sexual harassment is horrible, but he is a very good poet and he has been humiliated. As a poet, he's a colleague and I don't like to see poets humiliated." Later Padel issued a statement declaring: "I have no idea who the people are who did it. But I feel I should point out that what they did was not a smear ... The papers they sent out were published fact. What would be a smear would be to say my campaigners sent them, because that would be untrue."

Two hundred academics received the dossier detailing the sexual harassment claim against Walcott, prompting his supporters to express dismay at the "gutter tactics".

The dossier included pages from a book The Lecherous Professor: Sexual Harassment on Campus, by Billie Wright Dziech and Linda Weiner, which details the allegation made by a Harvard student.

It was alleged that while discussing her work, he asked her to "imagine me making love to you". After his alleged approaches were rejected, the student was given a C grade. Walcott said: "What happened 20 years ago I have never commented upon and have never given my side of what happened. That will continue to be the case."

Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992, he is often described as the West Indies' greatest writer and intellectual. Born in St Lucia, the father-of-three is a national hero who has a square named after him in his home town of Castries. His many fans include Barack Obama, who was photographed clutching a book of Walcott's poems three days after winning the presidential election.

Walcott had been backed for the Oxford post by novelist Alan Hollinghurst, poet Jenny Joseph and feminist author and Oxford don Hermione Lee. His withdrawal leaves academics to vote on two candidates — Padel, and the little-known Indian poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, 62. He is professor of English at the University of Allahabad, where he has taught since 1968. His backers, including Tariq Ali and Toby Litt, have described him as "one of the finest poets working in any language".

Walcott appeared to support Padel in the election. He said today: "Ruth Padel is a gifted poet who will make a great Professor of Poetry and I look forward to hearing or reading her lectures, if she is elected."

The post is arguably more influential than the poet laureateship. Walcott's withdrawal makes it likely that women will now hold the two most prestigious poetry posts in the country following Carol Ann Duffy's appointment as poet laureate earlier this month. The Oxford post comes with a nominal annual stipend of £6,901 and a requirement to give three lectures a year during the five-year tenure.

Oxford has no formal creative writing course, meaning its supporters maintain the post is particularly important. Past holders have included WH Auden, Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney.

Walcott was a frequent visitor to Oxford when his friend Heaney had the job. Professor Lee proposed that Walcott should stand.