MP calls for windfall tax on libel lawyers to protect journalists from “lawfare”
An MP has said a windfall tax on libel lawyers should be used to create a “defamation defence fund” to protect journalists from being silenced by oligarchs.
In a debate on Thursday, over the use of “lawfare” and costly libel actions to silence British journalists, Labour Party MP Liam Byrne said “the truth is under attack by oligarchs” as he claimed that English courts are being used to silence journalists.
Byrne claimed that kleptocrats from across the globe present journalists with costly lawsuits in a bid to silence and intimidate them.
As such, Byrne argued that a windfall tax should be imposed “the law firms making millions from the misuse of our courts,” and that money raised should be used to fund journalists’ defence lawyers.
Byrne said “vexatious litigants” should also be forced to pay punitive costs, to “deter the misuse of courts we are now seeing.”
Calling for government action, Conservative MP David Davis said the use of British courts for “lawfare” had turned “London into the global capital of dirty money.”
Davis said that “billionaires and multimillionaires should not be able to use the law to shut down legitimate criticism,” as he said the UK must “get a grip on the problem and stop this rampant abuse of our system.”
In putting forward a potential solution, Davis pointed to laws in the US that allow courts to dismiss libel lawsuits against journalists and newspapers at an early stage, on the grounds that the case is a matter of public interest.