Corbyn makes no apology, pays no compensation, makes no guarantees not to repeat comments in future
Pro-Israel right-winger Richard Millett has dropped his lawsuit against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn after the case was settled out of court.
A statement released by Corbyn notes that the settlement involved no financial compensation, no apology and no guarantee not to repeat similar comments to those to which Millett had taken exception:
Corbyn’s lawyers, Howe and Co, issued a fuller statement on the development:
Richard Millett discontinues his libel action against Jeremy Corbyn MP
The libel action brought by blogger Richard Millett against the MP and former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has been settled by consent. A court order bringing the litigation to an end has been approved by Mr Justice Nicklin. Mr Millett brought the claim in relation to a statement Mr Corbyn made during a live interview on The Andrew Marr Show broadcast on BBC One in September 2018.
The claim has been discontinued by Mr Millett with no order as to costs. A three week trial of the case was due to begin on Monday 10 October 2022.
The parties have released the following joint statement:
“The libel claim brought by Richard Millett against the Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP has been settled. Mr Corbyn has paid no damages, has made no apology and has given no undertakings concerning repetition of the words complained of. No costs have been paid by either party to the other as part of this settlement, save in respect of an outstanding order of the Court of Appeal from April 2021.
Neither party will be making any other comment about the case.”
In 2020 the court ruled that, although Mr Corbyn had not named Mr Millett in the Marr interview, Mr Millett would have been recognisable to some viewers. The court found that Mr Corbyn’s words meant that:
(1) on one occasion Mr Millett had been so disruptive at a meeting in the House of Commons that the police wished to remove him from the premises, but Mr Corbyn asked that he be allowed to remain;
(2) Mr Millett had acted in a disruptive way at other meetings and
(3) at a meeting Mr Millett had been extremely abusive in his treatment of Mr Hassassian [the Palestinian Ambassador] after Mr Hassassian spoke at the meeting. The nature of the abuse was such that Mr Hassassian was caused distress by Mr Millett’s behaviour. Mr Corbyn felt the need to speak to support Mr Hassassian. Mr Millett’s conduct towards Mr Hassassian was based on what Mr Hassassian had said and/or the views he was expressing.Mr Corbyn defended the case on the grounds that:
• what he had said about Mr Millett was true;
• that he reasonably believed it to have been in the public interest to say what he said about Mr Millett; and
• that he had been speaking honestly on an occasion of qualified privilege.Thirty-one independent witnesses agreed to give evidence on Mr Corbyn’s behalf, and gave witness statements about Mr Millett’s conduct at twenty separate meetings. Their evidence included video, audio, photographic and documentary evidence. Mr Corbyn was also to give evidence.
Mr Millett was to call seven witnesses, and intended on giving evidence himself.
The settlement brings to an end the protracted litigation on the basis set out in the joint statement.
Howe + Co’s Media/Libel Team were pleased to represent Jeremy Corbyn in his defence of the case. Our media team are: Martin Howe (senior partner), Kieran O’Rourke (partner), John Sheridan (solicitor) and Aylin Howe (solicitor).
Howe + Co instructed William McCormick KC (Selborne Chambers) and Mark Henderson (Doughty Street Chambers).
Richard Millett features in the new Al Jazeera investigative documentary series ‘The Labour Files‘. Another figure who features prominently in the series, BBC journalist John Ware, also dropped legal action against Corbyn earlier this year, but a lawsuit against Press Gang‘s Paddy French is still ongoing at the time of writing and is scheduled to be heard in November. Skwawkbox will be in London to cover the case if it goes ahead.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Note to Starmer: You are known by the acquaintances you keep close. I know you, almost everyone here knows you. Lots of people BTL on the Independent and Guardian know you.
Thirty-one independent witnesses agreed to give evidence on Mr Corbyn’s behalf, and gave witness statements about Mr Millett’s conduct at twenty separate meetings
In other words, millett was royally fooked if he went ahead.
All mouth… Which you’d hope would be given NO credence in future.
…But it doesn’t quite work like that, unfortunately. Still, twunts like him can’t help themselves. No doubt there’ll be more cases like this in future.
Corbyn ought to make a point of: Mr Corbyn has paid no damages, has made no apology and has given no undertakings concerning repetition of the words complained of.
And shout it from the rooftops should millett subsequently open his trap.
Scalp # 1 …
Thank you al Jazeera
It’s no coincidence (as Zelo Street pointed out) that: “The Labour Files airs on Sunday, the case collapses Monday.”
credit Tim Fenton “Moreover, there is now the appearance of Richard Millett in the second part of al-Jazeera’s The Labour Files. The footage showed him apparently being, er, disruptive, as well as acting in a manner that could be regarded as abusive and aggressive. This may not be relevant to the outcome, but it is quite the coincidence: The Labour Files airs on Sunday, the case collapses Monday.”
I got an email about this from Carole who organised the Go Fund me page about Millett dropping the case as I subscribed to page to help pay for any legal costs Jeremy incurred. My original donation related to the Ware case which was also dropped
It is great to know that I and tens of thousands like me were and still are willing to make modest donations to ensure that Jeremy is not bankrupted or in any way impoverished by any court costs. Nevertheless I am delighted with this outcome and happy that we still have the money in reserve in case anyone else decides to take legal action against Jeremy.
Yes me too. Wonderful to get some good news for a change!
Quite right Smartboy ..
Just watching the Al Jazeera Program now –
I think it is Program 2?
As soon as I saw the program’s reference
to Millet I thought of the Court Case ..
Good to hear that news!
Yes Holby Its great that the libel action was dropped but even better that we had the money to protect Jeremy from legal costs no matter what! There are so many of us that if we each give a little it mounts up to a lot – enough to keep Jeremy from the bankruptcy court, from losing his home, exhausting his savings ,cashing in his pension pot etc. There is no doubt in my mind that if Jeremy hadn’t our financial backing the cases against him would have come in thick and fast and innocent or not he would have ended up broke to the delight of the haters and bigots who oppose him.
I am also happy to give to any other person in the same circumstances
Also you are right about Al Jazeera – I couldn’t get it either. I am disappointed we have to wait but we’ll get it eventually.
I agree Smartboy – I have donated small amounts to
various causes*** – though not to Jeremy as his money
mounted up very quickly and there were others who
needed it more. My resources are limited and
there are Food banks and Baby banks to
donate to also ..
I am still in the LP but do not donate any extras to
my Local Party – which is a pity in a way because
they are a good crowd.
*** Labour Party members needing justice.
I know what you mean Holby and I do the same – give what I can but it is truly terrible that in one of the richest countries in the world people like us are having to contribute to food banks and other essential charities to stop people dying of starvation.
Also it is a national scandal that a great man, Jeremy Corbyn, who upset the apple cart by pledging to end child poverty and to ensure everybody had a roof over their heads and food on the table was and still is persecuted and hounded by people with a totally different agenda.
@AlJInt on the #LabourFiles :
Someone, somewhere, is running scared.
It must be quite the beast doing the scaring! Hopefully @AJIunit realises, as per always, its just a big mask with a little man/men/persons behind it.
a wizard of Oz/guy behind a curtain type of thing?
So, what is @AIJint and what’s it all bout?
DOH!! just worked it out AlJunit is the bit of Al Jazeera that produced The Labour Files… Hadn’t heard the acronym before – but there are too many of them that just appear with no explanation… live and learn!
Did you get to see the final one is it back on or on TV? I hope so, that dossier JFC! Frightening! I really hope we find out who was responsible for that thing!
Like many Skawkbox readers I give a few quid to the defence fund and I think its the way to go as far as fighting back against right wing lawfare. To quote Metallica ” Fight Fire With Fire ” do unto them what they do unto you. Seems to be the only way to handle the shower.
Yup, I hope that Nicer, Kinder, Gentler is well and truly locked away, sleeves up and knuckles tight and ready to go!
Time for payback and to settle an old score! Now is NOT the time for naivity nor placing trust in those evil bastards!
Now they should ALL come out fighting like wild animals!
Richard Millett is showing himself to be as self-interested, one-seded and shallow as his (fairly predictable) blogs
Did you notice from JC’s lawyers’ statement that “A three week trial of the case was due to begin on Monday 10 October 2022”? Millett let the action sit like a threat over Jeremy Corbyn for as long as he could, but knowing that it did not stand a chance, he ‘discontinued’ the action as late as possible (i.e. he chickened out of his sure-to-lose action as late as he could).
Appropriately, Howe and Co ensured that Jeremy’s defence was re-stated, i.e:
• what JC had said about Mr Millett was true;
• that JC reasonably believed it to have been in the public interest to say what he said about Mr Millett; and
• that JC had been speaking honestly on an occasion of qualified privilege.
Richard Bully-boy Millett as good as lost the action that HE made sure didn’t take place.
I reckon @Skwawkbox should do a FOI request from @AJIunit ASAP. We could leak it to the net, for him. (Accidentally of Course!)
Qwertbol, I am sure that he was only following orders.
As I’m sure most people who follow skwawkbox are aware, Jeremy was talking about Richard Millet and Jonathan Hoffman when he said what he said about not understanding English irony, but of course much of the MSM et al omitted to mention the fact and, as such, led their readers etc to believe that Jeremy said it in respect of ALL Zionists/Jews. Now Andrew Marr undoubtedly KNEW the details and, as such, that Jeremy was referring to two individuals, and yet when Jeremy appeared on Marrs Sunday morning programme, and yet (this is from a Morning Star article):
During the broadcast, Mr Corbyn was asked [by Marr] if he was an anti-semite and shown a recording of a speech he made in 2013 in which he referred to “zionists” who “don’t understand English irony.”
In response, Mr Corbyn referred to two people having been “incredibly disruptive” and “very abusive” at a meeting in the House of Commons the same year at which Manuel Hassassian, then the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to Britain, was speaking.
So much of the MSM are fraudulently reporting it as Jeremy saying it in respect of all Zionists/Jews, along with mountain-loads of faux outrage from the usual suspects, and so OBVIOUSLY when Marr asks him if he’s an anti-semite and then plays a recording, Jeremy is going to explain what happened and why he said what he said and who he said it about, albeit not by name. He was hardly NOT going to explain why he said it! And THAT then leads to one of them suing Jeremy for libel! Amazing!!
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/08/26/two-zionists-criticised-by-corbyn-called-rude-yobs-by-right-wing-pro-israel-streeting/
I had a look at some of Richard the-blogger Millett’s blogs earlier and was very surprised to read one that was very strident about Wes Streeting. Very strident.
Thanks Allan, your link informs me of the reason for Millett’s malice
The following is from a Times article:
Ms Berger, the Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, tweeted that the video of Mr Corbyn “making inexcusable comments — defended by a party spokesman — makes me as a proud British Jew feel unwelcome in my own party. I’ve lived in Britain all my life and I don’t need any lessons in history/irony.”
She was supported by Labour colleagues. Catherine McKinnell, the Newcastle North MP, tweeted that she was “standing right with you”. Phil Wilson, the MP for Sedgefield, added: “Right beside you.”
Marcus Dysch, who works for the Jewish educational charity World ORT, said that it was clear that the remarks targeted Jews. Tweeting in a personal capacity he said: “Unambiguous antisemitic hate from Corbyn, a terrorist-sympathising, purge orchestrating, fear-mongering, unaccountable piece of work who should never have been allowed to lead a once-great party. Is it any wonder British Jews despair as this saga drags on?”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jeremy-corbyn-zionists-just-don-t-grasp-irony-29wx7gwsl
I wonder who videoed the meeting, and then passed it on to the media five years later. I have a sneaky feeling the name begins with an M!
Just came across THIS headline in a piece by David Hirsh!:
Corbyn to Zionists: Even if you’ve lived here all your life, you don’t get the English
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/corbyn-to-zionists-even-if-you-lived-here-all-your-life-you-dont-get-the-english/
And I came across the front page of the guardian with “it will be allwhite on the knight labour party.all black faces.” .The criticism of the all whiteys worked with the assorted sun tans but its sad really because its almost a confirmation of we are being “played” and they can now after the photo hop get back to the whiteys fiefdom and shove all the “off whites downstairs in the servants quarters. of bunker Hq .Disgusting obvious racism by the labour party….!
It was never pointed out by the MSM that the two referred
to by Corbyn were POLITICAL Zionists and in fact one had been
Vice President of the Federation of Zionists so it was perfectly
natural to call them “Zionists”.
Meanwhile – there is hypocrisy – as pointed out by those pointing
out that BAME Labour MPs have been complaining for years
about discrimination. More particularly there have been complaints
that the Forde report has been ignored in respect of Racism.
Good point HolbyMw, but re. the accusation that zionism needs to instigate apartheid, is it less racist if you’re doing it for G-d?
re Forde, I’m not surprised that unadmitted racists ignore its advice on racism. But, to give them credit, it’s not JUST the racism they’re ignoring – they’re ignoring the Report’s very existence – another trait of an incorrigible extremist?
ooops… “its advice on racism” should really have been “its diagnosis of racism” (in the Labour party) 🤔🤔
Looks like another Labour MP has blotted their copy book:
“After disproportionate expulsions of Jewish members for “antisemitism“, we learn today that Rupa Huq, Labour MP and former shadow Home Office Minister, has had the whip withdrawn for “racism”. She called Kwasi Kwarteng – his outlandish remedies for failing British capitalism reminiscent of Thabo Mbeki’s for AIDS – “only superficially black”.”
http://steelcityscribblings.uk/wp/2022/09/27/rupa-huq-kwarteng-superficially-black/
GREAT post Dave H. Lazy thinking’s everywhere..
FWIW Thabo Mbeki’s AIDS Denialism: Neoliberalism, Government and Civil Society in South Africa
To be fair, right now there exists a valid evidence based argument for concluding the top and middle echelons of British society are only superficially adults. Or even human.
Though given the comotose position of most of the rest of the populace in the face of systemic across the board collapse with no viable fit for purpose practical and workable alternative anywhere to be found you’d probably struggle to find anyone capable of turning the lights out as everybody heads for the exit to escape the unfolding dystopia.
Not that it would matter as the lights are likely to go out anyway.
This piece sums it up neatly:
https://eand.co/what-britains-kamikaze-self-destruction-teaches-the-world-1522def1f1c0
“Something remarkable happened yesterday. At which history won’t know whether to laugh or cry. Perhaps it’ll do both. Britain, continuing on its course of self-destruction, finally reverted to back to a developing country…..
….The new Chanceller of the Exchequer — think of him as the Treasury Secretary — announced a new budget. And reacting in shock, laughing with disbelief, the markets proceeded to sell off pounds, at an astonishing rate. By the end of the day, the pound had been shredded. It was trading at its lowest levels since 1985….
…. What really happened here? Something unprecedented in the modern history of rich nations. The guy running the economy had triggered a currency crisis. This is the kind of thing that we see in “emerging markets,” aka developing countries, poor ones. Some crackpot takes control of the economy, the markets get spooked, and bang — there’s a run on that currency. Everyone wants to flee from it, because the crackpot now running the economy is going to torch it…..
…..Why was there a run on the pound? For a reason that’s almost too absurd to be believed. The guy running the economy — the new Chancellor — announced a new budget. And that budget was made of mega-borrowing — to the tune of hundreds of billions of pounds. For what? Borrowing in itself isn’t bad — it can and should be used for productive stuff, like fixing a society’s broken systems (of which Britain has plenty, and we’ll come back to that).
This budget, though, was made of mega-borrowing to fund…tax cuts. For whom? Tax cuts, too, aren’t intrinsically bad — but in this case — get ready to laugh — the tax cuts were so unevenly distributed that someone making a million pounds a year would save $50K, while someone on the average income would save maybe $200.
In other words, Britain’s new Chancellor had announced a budget…made of mega-borrowing…to fund tax cuts…for the ultra-rich.
You might think, so what? Here’s the point. That was so far right that it was a giant step too far even for “the markets.” It’s not often that “the markets” — investment banks and hedge funds, or as I call them, sociopaths — think something’s too far right…..
…..On twitter, the hashtag #KamiKwasi began to trend — the new Chancellor’s name being Kwasi Kwarteng. Bless the Brits for not losing their sense of humor — and yet the description is lethally accurate. Kwarteng had aimed gone full Kamikaze, a man on a suicide mission — his crackpot budget effectively saying “we don’t care, we’ll take the whole country down to get the dystopia we want.”
The carnage was real yesterday. And now the vicious circle of true economic ruin is going to begin. Why?
Well, Britain’s a net importer of…everything. Food, energy, clothes, cheese, go down the list. What happens as your currency plunges? That’s right, imports become more expensive. A lot more expensive, in this case. Brits are now going to have to pay far, far more for the very same goods, because their currency is losing its value fast.
And this is just the beginning of the currency crisis. It’s not going to stop here — the selloff in the pound is likely to continue, because the government hasn’t said anything to reassure anyone. Instead, it’s sticking to the line that “tax cuts equal growth.””
And the priority of the Official Loyal Opposition is to virtue signal at every opportunity. From a rendition of God save the King to removing anyone within the Party who does not follow The Official Narrative of an Establishment Elite now so far up its own arse it can see the empty space in its own dolls head.
Apparently, even though Conference is taking place our Labour Ward had a selection meeting tonight. As though this, along with a myriad of – in the now worse than dire context which exists and is unfolding – equally irrelevant going through the motions activities is going to make any difference or even reach the point of an election in six months time in the face of the Tsunami rapidly heading towards us.
The coming months are going to be brutal. Yet the best response of the entire edifice right down to the local level is to continue to operate as though it will be possible to continue as though everything is operating, and will operate, as though the Country is functioning normally.
Welcome to Zombieland.
Dave Hansell. Thanks. Their end desires are beyond belief. We are just under starter’s orders. All the best.
We’re in a dreadful pickle when we have to rely on Qatar and the US for real news. First Al Jazeera and now Grayzone.
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/09/24/intellligence-brexit-referendum-corbyn/
Ironic? Howe & Co solicitor Mark Henderson, who defended Jeremy Corbyn, is from Doughty Street Chambers, the same firm of solicitors that employs Adam Wagner who represented Campaign Against Anti-Semitism & sits on EHRC. Small world?
PS Why can no further comment be made by either party?