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Ruling due in Laurence Fox High Court libel battle over social media row

The Lewis actor is being sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal, but has counter-sued them.

Tom Pilgrim
Monday 29 January 2024 02:45 GMT
Laurence Fox got involved in a social media row after a post he made about Sainsburyā€™s (Ian West/PA)
Laurence Fox got involved in a social media row after a post he made about Sainsburyā€™s (Ian West/PA) (PA Archive)

Laurence Fox is set to discover the outcome of his High Court libel battle with two people he referred to as paedophiles on social media in a ruling on Monday.

The actor-turned-politician was sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal over a row on Twitter, now known as X, in October 2020.

Mr Fox called Mr Blake and the former RuPaulā€™s Drag Race contestant, whose real name is Colin Seymour, ā€œpaedophilesā€ in an exchange about a decision by Sainsburyā€™s to celebrate Black History Month.

The Lewis star ā€“ who founded the Reclaim Party ā€“ counter-sued the pair and actress Nicola Thorp over tweets accusing him of racism.

Mr Fox said at the time he would boycott Sainsburyā€™s, accusing it of promoting ā€œracial segregation and discriminationā€.

Mrs Justice Collins Rice is due to issue her written ruling over the case on Monday.

During a trial in London in November, Mr Fox was described was an alleged ā€œintelligent racist with an agendaā€.

Lorna Skinner KC, representing Mr Blake, Mr Seymour and Ms Thorp, said the trio ā€œhonestly believed, and continue honestly to believe, that Mr Fox is a racistā€.

She said the actor ā€œhas made a number of highly controversial statements about raceā€, adding: ā€œIf and to the extent that Mr Fox has been harmed in his reputation, it is his own conduct and not the claimantsā€™ comments on it that caused that harm.ā€

The barrister highlighted several of Mr Foxā€™s social media posts, including a June 2022 tweet of four pride flags arranged in the shape of a swastika.

In his written evidence for the case, Mr Seymour, a Canadian artist, said he had faced ā€œoverwhelming and distressingā€ abuse after Mr Foxā€™s tweet, adding that he felt less safe as a drag performer.

Mr Blake, now chief executive of Mental Health First Aid England, said the incorrect suggestion that gay men were paedophiles was ā€œa trope as old as the hillsā€.

Broadcaster Nicola Thorp claimed that Mr Fox had ā€œouted himself as a racistā€ with a tweet calling for a boycott of the supermarket.

She said that any reputational harm Mr Fox suffered ā€œwas because of what he did, not because of what I saidā€.

Patrick Green KC, representing Mr Fox, told the court neither Mr Blake nor Mr Seymour ā€œhas suffered any actual, real-world consequencesā€ due to the actorā€™s tweets.

The barrister said the posts did not cause people to think worse of Mr Blake and Mr Seymour, and that people did not believe they were paedophiles.

Instead, Mr Green said readers would have understood that Mr Foxā€™s posts were a ā€œretort to an allegation of racismā€ rather than a factual allegation.

Mr Fox told the court he was ā€œhorrifiedā€ when he saw he had been called a racist, which he later described as ā€œa career-ending word and a reputation-destroying allegationā€.

He said his life was ā€œdestroyedā€ by ā€œhurtfulā€ racism allegations and he was left unable to get a mortgage.

The actor said he faced a ā€œsignificant declineā€ in the number and quality of roles he was offered after he was accused of being a racist in the social media row.

Mrs Justice Collins is expected to issue her ruling at 3pm.

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