The owner of right-wing blog Guido Fawkes, Paul Staines, has paid green industrialist and Labour Party donor Dale Vince £75,000 towards legal costs, over false claims that Vince supported Hamas.
The legal battle occurred after Staines published articles on the Guido Fawkes blog falsely accusing Mr Vince of having expressed support for Hamas during the Times Radio interview.
Press Gazette reports that it ‘follows news last month that Staines had agreed to pay the Ecotricity founder £9,950 in damages and settle the case to avoid “ruinous” future costs.’
Vince’s lawyer Annabell Hood said in a statement to an open court: “On 9 October 2023, Mr Vince was interviewed by Stig Abell for Times Radio. The interview covered various topics, including the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel two days previously and the wider situation in Israel and Palestine. During the interview, Mr Vince confirmed that he agreed with Labour’s position that Hamas were terrorists and condemned their attack on 7 October 2023.
“On 13 and 14 March 2024, Mr Staines published articles on the Guido Fawkes blog falsely accusing Mr Vince of having expressed support for Hamas during the Times Radio interview. Mr Staines called for the donations Mr Vince had made to the Labour Party to be returned. He published similar allegations on social media.
“Mr Staines’ false allegations were adopted and/or repeated widely. The allegation that Mr Vince supported Hamas was highly defamatory…
“On 4 April 2024, Mr Vince invited Mr Staines to resolve the matter by retracting the false allegations, apologising and paying Mr Vince’s legal costs. Mr Vince indicated that he would waive any claim for damages if Mr Staines agreed to do this.
“Rather than accept this offer, Mr Staines chose to ‘double down’, claiming that his website was based offshore and that he was immune from suit.
“Mr Staines’ stance forced Mr Vince to bring libel proceedings in order to obtain vindication.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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