The Nobel Laureate who provoked an international row by apparently claiming that black people are less intelligent than whites left Britain in disgrace yesterday after being suspended from his job.

James Watson, in London to promote a new book, was forced to return to New York after Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, relieved him of his duties because of his apparent views. It follows a hellish week for the 79-year-old geneticist who helped to unravel the structure of DNA more than 50 years ago.

After being quoted in The Sunday Times saying that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”, Dr Watson added that he hoped everyone was equal, but that “people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true”.

Yesterday, the prestigious scientific institute where he has worked for 35 years issued a terse statement halting his responsibilities. It will come as a devastating and personal blow to Dr Watson who has served as the laboratory's director and president.

The suspension prompted Dr Watson to cancel a string of speaking engagements in Britain that were meant to take place to promote his book. Yesterday morning, his publicist at Oxford University Press said that he had flown back to the US to “sort out” his job. “He returned to the United States this morning because of circumstances back home at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory,” Kate Farquhar-Thomson said. “He felt that’s where he needed to be.”

The row had escalated when the Science Museum in London cancelled a presentation with Dr Watson. David Lammy, Minister for Skills, claimed that Dr Watson’s views were discredited and would help far-right organisations such as the British National Party.

Dr Watson arrived in Britain on Thursday ready to visit five different venues. That evening, he said he had been “mortified” by the response to the interview. “To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly,” he said.

“That is not what I meant. More importantly, there is no scientific basis for such a belief.” He went on: “I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said. I can certainly understand why people reading those words have reacted in the ways they have.”

A spokesman for The Sunday Timesstood by the interview, adding that it was recorded.

Dr Watson has courted controversy before. Three years ago, he was reported as saying that a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine that it would be homosexual. He has also suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, proposing a theory that black people have higher libidos, and claimed that beauty could be genetically manufactured.

A number of scientists have dismissed Dr Watson’s comments. Craig Venter, the noted geneticist, said: “Skin colour as a surrogate for race is a social concept, not a scientific one. There is no basis in scientific fact or in the human genetic code for the notion that skin colour will be predictive of intelligence.”

Baroness Greenfield, the neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, said: “It is a great shame that someone as distinguished as James Watson should make such comments.”

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