Paul Staines, the founder, owner, and erstwhile editor of the political blog Guido Fawkes has settled libel proceedings brought against him by Dale Vince.
On 13 and 14 March 2024, Mr Staines published articles on his Guido Fawkes blog falsely accusing Mr Vince of having expressed support for Hamas during a Times Radio interview. Mr Staines called for the donations Mr Vince had made to the Labour Party to be returned. He published similar allegations on social media.
On 11 November 2024 a trial of preliminary issues took place. Judgment was handed down on 26 February 2025 and this determined that Mr Staines had defamed Mr Vince and that no honest opinion defence was available (Dale Vince OBE -v- Paul Staines and Richard Tice MP [2025] EWHC 412 (KB)).
In a statement in the High Court on 28 March 2025 before Mrs Justice Collins Rice it was reported that Mr Staines had agreed to pay Mr Vince damages and legal costs. As part of the settlement, Mr Staines has removed the offending content from the world wide web and provided an undertaking to the court no to repeat the allegations.
The full statement in open court can be found here.
A number of parties that made similar allegations last year have already apologised to Mr Vince and paid damages and/or legal costs. These include the Daily Mail, GB News and Sir Michael Fabricant. Libel proceedings against Lord Bailey of Paddington and Richard Tice MP are ongoing.
Dale Vince was represented by Iain Wilson, Tom Double and Adham Harker, and William Bennett KC and Ben Hamer of 5RB
This post originally appeared on the Brett Wilson Media and Communications Blog
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