Reclaim Party’s Laurence Fox libel battle continues in appeal court
Former London mayoral candidate Laurence Fox appeared at the Court of Appeal today, seeking to question a legal ruling in favour of two men whom he had labelled ‘paedophiles’ online.
The libel case originates from social media posts by supermarket giant Sainsbury’s in 2020, celebrating Black History Month. In response, Fox tweeted that he would no longer be shopping there.
On social media platform X, Fox claimed Sainsbury’s was promoting “racial segregation and discrimination.” In response to his comments, two men—Simon Blake and Colin Seymour—called him a ‘racist’ in their tweets at Fox.
Blake is the former trustee of the charity Stonewall, and Seymour is a drag artist known as Crystal, who appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
After being called a ‘racist,’ Fox responded by calling the two men ‘paedophiles.’
Both Blake and Seymour subsequently sued the Reclaim Party founder for libel, prompting Fox to file a counterclaim over the ‘racist’ allegation.
Last year, the High Court found in favour of Blake and Seymour, dismissing Fox’s counterclaims.
In Mrs Justice Collins Rice judgment, the judge said that in calling Blake and Mr Seymour paedophiles, Fox “subjected them to a wholly undeserved public ordeal.”
“It was a gross, groundless and indefensible libel, with distressing and harmful real-world consequences for them,” the judge added.
The court ordered Fox to pay costs of £90,000 to each man.
The judge also ordered Fox not to publish any statement re-stating his libel statement.
However, he is back in the Royal Court of Justice building today, after filing an appeal notice on 2 July 2024, seeking to overturn the orders made by the judge last year. Speaking last year, Fox said he was seeking an appeal in order to get the meaning of the word ‘racist’.
The case will be heard at the Court of Appeal on Monday and Tuesday, with a judgment to follow.