The Sun’s former editor Kelvin MacKenzie is reportedly poised to leave the tabloid after comparing footballer Ross Barkley to a gorilla.
The Financial Times reports that executives at The Sun's parent company News UK are negotiating Mr MacKenzie’s exit after he was suspended for making comments about the Everton player.
Until recently Mr MacKenzie wrote a weekly column for the red top, but drew fire with an April 14 article that said he was not surprised midfielder Barkley, who is of mixed race, was punched in a bar in Liverpool last month.
In the column, Mr MacKenzie claimed that when he sees the footballer, he gets “a similar feeling when seeing a gorilla at the zoo”.
He also claimed that the only other men in Liverpool who earned similar pay packets to Barkley were "drug dealers".
Amid widespread condemnation of the article, The Sun took down the article and suspended Mr Mackenzie "with immediate effect”.
“The views expressed by Kelvin MacKenzie about the people of Liverpool were wrong, unfunny and are not the view of the paper,” it said in a statement.
Apologising for the offensive comments, it added: “Mr MacKenzie is currently on holiday and the matter will be fully investigated on his return.”
An article published in the Financial Times on Monday cites a source who revealed: “Kelvin will not be employed by News UK for much longer.”
The paper reported that the decision came from Rebekah Brooks, who was brought back to News UK as chief executive in 2015 after being cleared of phone hacking charges the previous year.
A spokesman for The Sun did not deny news of Mr MacKenzie’s permanent departure but told the Standard: “Mr Mackenzie remains suspended from the newspaper.”
