Green energy industrialist Dale Vince’s libel claim against the publisher of the Daily Mail has been thrown out by a High Court judge.
Vince sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over an article that he claimed falsely suggested he was the subject of harassment allegations.
The article, published in June last year, was headlined “Labour repays £100,000 to ‘sex harassment’ donor” and reported that the Labour Party was handing back money to donor Davide Serra, while also referencing fellow donor Vince.
An employment tribunal in 2022 heard Serra had made sexist comments to a female colleague which were found to amount to unlawful harassment related to sex.
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A hearing in London in February was told that Vince was “seriously defamed” by the article’s headline, image and captions, as they made readers think he was the subject of the allegations.
But lawyers for ANL opposed the claim, telling the hearing it would be clear to people reading the whole article that Vince was not the donor being referred to in the headline.
In a ruling on Monday, Judge Jaron Lewis struck out Vince’s claim, stating that it was “not potentially viable” and “bound to fail”.
He said: “There is a contradiction in the claimant’s case. The claimant accepts that the headline and photograph do not accurately summarise the article, although his pleaded case on ‘extrinsic facts’ is that they always do.”
He continued: “At its highest, it could be said that some readers will have believed that headlines always accurately summarise the underlying article, but this is no more than an opinion, and is insufficient to support an innuendo meaning.”
He added: “The claim is not potentially viable, and there is no basis for exercising discretion in the claimant’s favour.”
In a separate case the Daily Mail apologised and agreed substantial libel damages to Vince in May over another article stating he said Hamas “should be free to defend itself”.
The Mail said: “We now accept that this quote is inaccurate and wish to make clear that Mr Vince does not support Hamas in any way. We apologise to Mr Vince for any damage and distress caused by the error.”
GB News has also apologised to Vince over similar reporting. Its statement said: “On 14 March 2024, we published a Post on X in which we stated that Dale Vince “said in a radio interview … that Hamas are ‘freedom fighters’”. We now accept that this was not an accurate reflection of Mr Vince’s comments. We apologise to Mr Vince for any distress caused by our publication”.
Vince is also suing Guido Fawkes owner Paul Staines, who said he has “no intention of apologising” and will “make a stand and defend free speech”. Guido has generally “ignored British court orders”, Staines has said, because of the “safe haven protection” given by the fact he and the site’s servers are both based outside the UK, but this time he plans to fight the legal action.
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