Ex-Corbyn aide loses appeal against High Court libel ruling ordering her to pay Rachel Riley £10,000 in damages over tweet accusing Countdown star of calling Labour leader a ‘Nazi’
- Rachel Riley sued former Corbyn aide Laura Murray for libel over a tweet
- Miss Murray accused the Countdown star of calling ex-Labour leader a ‘Nazi’
- High Court judges awarded Miss Riley £10,000 in damages last year
- Miss Murray has now lost an appeal against the libel ruling
A former aide to Jeremy Corbyn who was ordered to pay Rachel Riley £10,000 in damages after wrongly accusing the Countdown star of calling the ex-Labour leader a ‘Nazi’ during a Twitter spat has lost an appeal against the High Court ruling.
The TV maths expert launched legal action against Laura Murray after the former Labour aide claimed that a message shared on Twitter by Miss Riley had compared Mr Corbyn to a Nazi.
She accused the Countdown presenter, 36, of suggesting that the former Labour leader deserved to be attacked after an incident in which he had eggs thrown at him by a Brexiteer at Finsbury Park mosque in north London in March 2019.
Miss Murray, who is in her 30s, wrote on Twitter at the time: ‘Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer.
‘Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.’
Miss Riley sued Miss Murray for libel over the message and was last December awarded £10,000 in damages.
High Court judges had rejected Miss Murray’s defences of truth, honest opinion, and publication on matter of public interest and awarded damages to Miss Riley, saying she was entitled to ‘vindication’.
Miss Murray challenged that ruling at the Court of Appeal in July, but her appeal was dismissed by three senior judges in a ruling delivered today.
Rachel Riley (left) launched legal action against Laura Murray (right) after the Corbynista claimed that a message shared on Twitter by Miss Riley had compared Mr Corbyn to a Nazi
Miss Riley posted a screenshot of a January 2019 tweet by Guardian columnist Owen Jones about an attack on former British National Party leader Nick Griffin, which said: ‘I think sound life advice is, if you don’t want eggs thrown at you, don’t be a Nazi.’ She added ‘Good advice’, with emojis of a red rose and an egg. Miss Murray later tweeted: ‘Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer. Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever’
January 10, 2019: Former British National Party leader Nick Griffin tweets he had re-watched footage of ‘100 far-left thugs attacking a BNP MEP press conference’ in 2009.
He says Guardian columnist Owen Jones was ‘cheering them on (from the back)’.
Mr Jones replies, saying: ‘I think sound life advice is, if you don’t want eggs thrown at you, don’t be a Nazi. Seems fair to me.’
March 3: An egg is hurled at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at Finsbury Park Mosque.
Rachel Riley later posts a screenshot of Owen Jones’ egg tweet, saying it was ‘good advice’, with an emoji of a red rose and an egg.
That same day Laura Murray, a senior aide to the then Labour leader, tweets: ‘Today, Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer.
‘Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi.
‘This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her… Ever.’
Ms Riley launches legal action.
April 24, 2020: Ms Riley wins the first round in her High Court libel claim over the tweet.
Mr Justice Nicklin says that an ‘imputation that a person had publicly supported a violent attack on someone is plainly defamatory at common law’.
He adds that it is ‘conduct which would substantially affect, in an adverse manner, the attitude of other people towards the claimant or have a tendency so to do’.
But he rejects a claim from Ms Murray’s lawyer that she was expressing an opinion when she said Ms Riley had said the Labour leader ‘deserved to be violently attacked’.
He said it was ‘a simple factual statement and would be understood as such’.
May 10, 2021: Ms Riley tells the High Court she was unable to sleep and bombarded with abuse after Jeremy Corbyn’s former aide claimed she said he ‘deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi’.
December 20, 2021 : Ms Riley is awarded £10,000 in damages after Mr Justice Nicklin rules she is ‘entitled’ to ‘vindication’.
August 11, 2022: Ms Murray loses her appeal against the ruling.
The Countdown star, who is Jewish and faced online abuse after criticising anti-Semitism in the Labour party, called Miss Murray’s tweet an ‘appalling distortion of the truth’ which contained ‘defamatory statements of fact’ about her.
Their row began after a Brexiteer smashed an egg on Mr Corbyn’s head during a visit to Finsbury Park Mosque on March 3, 2019.
Miss Riley had initially posted a screenshot of a January 2019 tweet by Guardian columnist Owen Jones about an earlier attack on former British National Party leader Nick Griffin, which said: ‘I think sound life advice is, if you don’t want eggs thrown at you, don’t be a Nazi.’
She added ‘Good advice’, with emojis of a red rose and an egg.
Later, Miss Murray tweeted: ‘Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer.
‘Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi.
‘This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.’
Miss Riley said that she was being sarcastic in her tweet, did not call Mr Corbyn a Nazi, and told the judge that Miss Murray’s tweet caused serious harm to her reputation.
Mr Justice Nicklin concluded that the tweet meant Miss Riley had ‘publicly stated’ Mr Corbyn had been attacked when visiting a mosque; that he ‘deserved to be violently attacked’; by doing so she had shown herself to be a ‘dangerous and stupid person’ who ‘risked inciting unlawful violence’; and that people should not ‘engage with her’.
He found that Miss Riley had demonstrated that Miss Murray’s tweet had caused serious harm to her reputation, and also said both women had been truthful in the evidence they gave and had done their best to ‘assist the court’.
Mr Justice Nicklin said there was an ‘element of provocation’ in Miss Riley’s ‘good advice’ tweet.
‘Although posting the good advice tweet could not be described as ‘bad conduct’ of the claimant, it properly falls to be characterised as provocative, even mischievous,’ he said in a written ruling.
‘It was calculated to provoke a reaction and it did.’
Miss Riley, who studied mathematics at Oxford University and is on maternity leave from Countdown after giving birth in November, had told the judge she is Jewish and has a ‘hatred of antisemitism’.
She said she speaks out against antisemitism and thought the Corbyn-led Labour Party was ‘fostering antisemitism’.
Miss Murray was stakeholder manager in Mr Corbyn’s office when he was Labour leader, and went on to be the party’s head of complaints, before going into teaching.
She argued that what she tweeted was true and reflected her honestly held opinions.
Mr Justice Nicklin ruled at an earlier hearing that Miss Murray’s tweet was defamatory.
Miss Murray told the judge that her job had involved her working with the Jewish community to ‘try to find solutions to the problem of antisemitism which was becoming evident within parts of the Labour Party membership’.
Miss Murray was stakeholder manager in Mr Corbyn’s (both pictured) office when he was Labour leader, and went on to be the party’s head of complaints, before going into teaching
Lawyers for Miss Murray argued that Mr Justice Nicklin was wrong to reject her defences, saying that the ‘ambiguity’ of Miss Riley’s initial tweet meant that Miss Murray’s subsequent tweet was ‘substantially true’.
They also raised objections to his rejection of the honest opinion and public interest defences.
But, giving the lead ruling, Lord Justice Warby said Mr Justice Nicklin was ‘entitled to conclude that … the defendant’s tweet was not shown to be substantially true’.
The judge, sitting with Lords Justice Dingemans and Arnold, also rejected Miss Murray’s other grounds of appeal.
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