Derek Walcott withdraws candidacy for Oxford poetry professor after sexual harassment claims revived by anonymous letter campaign

Nobel prize winner Derek Walcott has withdrawn from the race to become Oxford's professor of poetry following an anonymous letter campaign.

The campaign saw up to 100 Oxford academics sent photocopied pages from a book detailing a sexual harassment claim made against Walcott by a Harvard student in 1982. The student alleged that Walcott asked her to, "Imagine me making love to you. What would I do? ... Would you make love with me if I asked you?", and claimed that after she turned him down, her grade in his class was lowered to a C.

Walcott was one of three candidates in the running for the position – the most influential in poetry in the UK behind that of the laureateship – alongside Ruth Padel and the Indian poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. He was backed by major names in the literary world, including Booker winner Alan Hollinghurst, Graham Robb, Marina Warner, poet Jenny Joseph, and professor Hermione Lee, and was seen as the frontrunner for the post. Oxford graduates are due to vote for their choice of poetry professor on 16 May.

But the Nobel laureate said today that he was withdrawing from the election, hitting out at the "low tactics", and the "low and degrading attempt at character assassination" it had become.

"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," he told the Evening Standard. "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."

Padel, who now looks likely to be a shoo-in for the post, said Walcott's withdrawal was "dreadful". "I wish he hadn't," she said. "It's very, very sad. He's a fine poet and I really, really admire his work."

Padel, who is supported by the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, as well as Victoria Glendinning and AC Grayling, disassociated herself firmly from the smear campaign. "We have fought our campaign on interesting premises – what poetry can do in a university. All three candidates have different things to offer, and that's what it should be about – what three different poets could offer the university," she said.

"It was an ethical campaign being conducted in an unethical way, and now it's had dire consequences," said Oxford English lecturer Peter D McDonald, one of Mehrotra's nominators alongside Amit Chaudhuri and Tariq Ali, of the smear campaign. "The people who are behind that campaign ought to reflect [on what they've done]."

Walcott said that Padel was a "gifted poet" who would make a "great" professor of poetry, and that he looked "forward to hearing or reading her lectures if she is elected".

"What happened 20 years ago I have never commented upon and have never given my side of what happened," he said of the allegations. "That will continue to be the case."