A Conservative peer has accepted substantial damages and an apology over a Mail Online article that falsely accused him of “rubbing shoulders with Islamists, hate preachers and Holocaust deniers for years”.

Lord Sheikh said he was “delighted to have been able finally to clear my name from these shocking and unfounded allegations” months after a High Court judge ruled the article had a highly defamatory meaning.

The story, published on 15 August 2018, reported on the peer’s attendance at the same conference in Tunisia in 2014 where former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had taken part in a controversial wreath-laying ceremony.