www.theguardian.com Open in urlscan Pro
2a04:4e42:400::367  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

https://www.google.co.uk/search

<form action="https://www.google.co.uk/search" class="dcr-g8v7m4"><label for="src-component-110671" class="dcr-0">
    <div class="dcr-suhoqp">Search input </div>
  </label><input type="text" id="src-component-110671" aria-required="true" aria-invalid="false" aria-describedby="" required="" name="q" placeholder="Search" data-link-name="nav2 : search" tabindex="-1" class="selectableMenuItem dcr-1975ymr"><label
    class="dcr-0">
    <div class="dcr-suhoqp">google-search </div>
    <div class="dcr-190ztmi"><svg width="30" viewBox="-3 -3 30 30" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" aria-hidden="true">
        <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd"
          d="M9.273 2c4.023 0 7.25 3.295 7.25 7.273a7.226 7.226 0 0 1-7.25 7.25C5.25 16.523 2 13.296 2 9.273 2 5.295 5.25 2 9.273 2Zm0 1.84A5.403 5.403 0 0 0 3.84 9.274c0 3 2.409 5.454 5.432 5.454 3 0 5.454-2.454 5.454-5.454 0-3.023-2.454-5.432-5.454-5.432Zm7.295 10.887L22 20.16 20.16 22l-5.433-5.432v-.932l.91-.909h.931Z">
        </path>
      </svg><span class="dcr-1p0hins">Search</span></div>
  </label><button type="submit" aria-live="polite" aria-label="Search with Google" data-link-name="nav2 : search : submit" tabindex="-1" class="dcr-1ykfoy6">
    <div class="src-button-space"></div><svg width="30" viewBox="-3 -3 30 30" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" aria-hidden="true">
      <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M1 12.956h18.274l-7.167 8.575.932.932L23 12.478v-.956l-9.96-9.985-.932.932 7.166 8.575H1v1.912Z"></path>
    </svg>
  </button><input type="hidden" name="as_sitesearch" value="www.theguardian.com"></form>

Text Content

Skip to main contentSkip to navigation
Close dialogue1/1Next imagePrevious imageToggle caption
Skip to navigation
Print subscriptions
Sign in
Search jobs
Search
US edition
 * US edition
 * UK edition
 * Australia edition
 * International edition
 * Europe edition

The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian


SUPPORT THE GUARDIAN

Fund independent journalism with $5 per month
Support us

Support us
 * News
 * Opinion
 * Sport
 * Culture
 * Lifestyle

ShowMoreShow More
 * News
   * View all News
   * US news
   * US elections 2024
   * World news
   * Environment
   * Ukraine
   * Soccer
   * Business
   * Tech
   * Science
   * Newsletters
   * Wellness
   
 * Opinion
   * View all Opinion
   * The Guardian view
   * Columnists
   * Letters
   * Opinion videos
   * Cartoons
   
 * Sport
   * View all Sport
   * Soccer
   * NFL
   * Tennis
   * MLB
   * MLS
   * NBA
   * NHL
   * F1
   * Golf
   
 * Culture
   * View all Culture
   * Film
   * Books
   * Music
   * Art & design
   * TV & radio
   * Stage
   * Classical
   * Games
   
 * Lifestyle
   * View all Lifestyle
   * Wellness
   * Fashion
   * Food
   * Recipes
   * Love & sex
   * Home & garden
   * Health & fitness
   * Family
   * Travel
   * Money
 * Search input
   google-search
   Search
   
   
    * Support us
    * Print subscriptions

   US edition
   * UK edition
   * Australia edition
   * International edition
   * Europe edition
   
 * * Search jobs
   * Digital Archive
   * Guardian Puzzles app
   * Guardian Licensing
   * About Us
   * The Guardian app
   * Video
   * Podcasts
   * Pictures
   * Inside the Guardian
   * Guardian Weekly
   * Crosswords
   * Wordiply
   * Corrections
   * Facebook
   * Twitter
 * * Search jobs
   * Digital Archive
   * Guardian Puzzles app
   * Guardian Licensing
   * About Us

 * Film
 * Books
 * Music
 * Art & design
 * TV & radio
 * Stage
 * Classical
 * Games



Laurence Fox outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
View image in fullscreen
Laurence Fox outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
Laurence Fox



LAURENCE FOX LOSES LIBEL BATTLE WITH TWITTER USERS HE CALLED PAEDOPHILES

Reclaim party founder defamed two men on site now known as X after they called
him a racist, judge rules



Matthew Weaver
Mon 29 Jan 2024 10.42 ESTFirst published on Mon 29 Jan 2024 10.15 EST
 * 
 * 
 * 



The actor and rightwing activist Laurence Fox has lost a high court libel battle
with two men he called paedophiles after they called him a racist. The former
actor defamed the men when he used the slur on social media, Mrs Justice Collins
Rice has ruled.

The Reclaim party founder was sued by Simon Blake, a former Stonewall trustee,
and Crystal, a drag artist, over a dispute on Twitter, now X, in October 2020.



Fox, 45, called Blake and the former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, whose real
name is Colin Seymour, paedophiles in an exchange about a decision by
Sainsbury’s to provide a safe space for black employees during Black History
Month.



Fox’s call for a boycott of the supermarket had prompted claims by Blake,
Seymour and Nicola Thorp, a former Coronation Street actor, that he was a
racist.

Fox countersued, telling the high court that being accused of racism was a
“reputation-destroying allegation” and “career-ending”. His claims were
dismissed on Monday.

Collins Rice said: “Mr Fox’s labelling of Mr Blake and Mr Seymour as paedophiles
was, on the evidence, probabilities and facts of this case, seriously harmful,
defamatory and baseless.

“The law affords few defences to defamation of this sort. Mr Fox did not attempt
to show these allegations were true, and he was not able to bring himself on the
facts within the terms of any other defence recognised in law.”

She added that the issue of damages and any other remedies would be discussed at
a later date.

The judge did not make a ruling on whether describing Fox as “a racist” is
“substantially true”, after finding that the three tweets cited in his
counterclaim were unlikely to cause serious harm to his reputation.



Lorna Skinner KC, representing Blake, Seymour and Thorp at the six-day trial in
November, said the three “honestly believed, and continue honestly to believe,
that Mr Fox is a racist”.

In his written evidence for the case, Seymour, a Canadian artist, said he had
faced “overwhelming and distressing” abuse after Fox’s tweet, adding that he
felt less safe as a drag performer. Blake, now chief executive of Mental Health
First Aid England, said the false suggestion that all gay men were paedophiles
was “a trope as old as the hills”.

Fox said he faced a “significant decline” in the number and quality of roles he
was offered after he was accused of being a racist in the social media row.

Under cross-examination, Fox suggested there were contexts in which the phrase
“I hate black people” was not racist. He said: “If a man is just released from a
Ugandan jail where he’s been gang-raped by several men and he walks out and he
goes: ‘I hate black people’, it’s a sort of understandable response.”

Asked whether it was racist to say “Black people in the UK should go home”, Fox
replied: “Depends on what context.”

During the trial, Fox dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement as “grift” and
“a Ponzi scheme”. He added: “We’re all equal in the eyes of god, so all lives
matter.” Fox also insisted that he had been subjected to anti-white racism.

When Skinner put it to him that he had not had a lived experience of racism, Fox
said: “Yes, I have … There’s huge quantities of anti-right white racism in the
world. It’s the only acceptable form of racism there is left.”

He also described the idea of white privilege as “disgusting racism” and added:
“I choose to understand white privilege as a racist insult because it’s about
the colour of your skin, and it’s not about the content of your character.”

The court heard Fox defending his criticism of successful black actors who
complain about racism. He told the court: “Would I be allowed to stand up and
go: ‘It was just so difficult as a kid from Harrow, you know, as a missionary’s
son, it was so hard’? I wouldn’t.”



The actor claimed there was an “incongruity” in black actors playing white
characters. He told the court that casting a black actor in the role of Anne
Boleyn was “done for political reasons. It was done in my view to virtue signal
to an audience … My point is a philosophical point, which is: if Anne Boleyn can
be black, then Nelson Mandela can be white, surely.”

Fox also told the court that footballers who took the knee were cowards, and
loudly chanted a New Zealand haka to try to illustrate his point. He told the
court: “The New Zealanders going to a rugby game going, ‘Whakaka tu ka pu pu’,
you know, it’s to intimidate your rival because you’re about to beat your rival.



“I think kneeling before your rival makes you look like a bit of a coward who’s
going to lose the game.”

Speaking outside the court, Fox described the verdict as a “nothing-burger” and
said he was considering an appeal. “I’m not a racist,” he said.

Seymour said he was “incredibly pleased” by the verdict. He said: “Mr Fox could
have made this go away very early on with a meaningful apology and settlement.
Instead, and despite his protestations about the importance of ‘free speech’, he
sued me for holding the opinion that he is a racist. I suggest Mr Fox spend some
time reflecting on the serious harm he causes rather than fixating on his own
self-inflicted martyrdom.”

Thorp said Fox’s own views had damaged his career.

In a post on X, she said: “The same man who later told a black man to ‘fuck off
back to Jamaica’, posted pride flags in the shape of a swastika and shared
blacked-up images of himself … It’s time that Mr Fox accepted that any damage to
his reputation is entirely his own doing.”

Explore more on these topics
 * Laurence Fox
 * Media law
 * news

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

Reuse this content




MORE ON THIS STORY






MORE ON THIS STORY




 * LAURENCE FOX HAS LOST HIS ‘GOOD NAME’: WHAT NOW FOR THE SAD CLOWN OF THE
   CULTURE WARS CIRCUS?
   
   2d ago


 * LAURENCE FOX COMMENTS ABOUT AVA EVANS TOP OFCOM COMPLAINTS LIST FOR 2023
   
   20 Dec 2023


 * LAURENCE FOX COMMENTS ABOUT ME ON GB NEWS ‘UNFORGIVABLE’, AVA EVANS SAYS
   
   30 Sept 2023


 * LAURENCE FOX REMARKS ‘WAY PAST LIMITS OF ACCEPTANCE’, SAYS GB NEWS BOSS
   
   29 Sept 2023


 * LAURENCE FOX APOLOGISES TO AVA EVANS FOR ‘DEMEANING’ COMMENTS ON GB NEWS
   
   28 Sept 2023


 * GB NEWS SUSPENDS LAURENCE FOX OVER COMMENTS ABOUT FEMALE JOURNALIST
   
   27 Sept 2023


 * LAURENCE FOX: GB NEWS LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION AFTER ‘INAPPROPRIATE’ COMMENTS
   ABOUT AVA EVANS
   
   27 Sept 2023


 * LAURENCE FOX’S POLITICAL PARTY RECEIVED ALMOST SAME DONATIONS AS LIB DEMS
   
   3 Jun 2021


 * LAURENCE FOX JOINS LONDON MAYORAL RACE ON ANTI-LOCKDOWN TICKET
   
   6 Mar 2021




MOST VIEWED


MOST VIEWED



 * Film
 * Books
 * Music
 * Art & design
 * TV & radio
 * Stage
 * Classical
 * Games

 * News
 * Opinion
 * Sport
 * Culture
 * Lifestyle

Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning
Sign up for our email

 * About us
 * Help
 * Complaints & corrections
 * SecureDrop
 * Work for us
 *  
 * Privacy policy
 * Cookie policy
 * Terms & conditions
 * Contact us

 * All topics
 * All writers
 * Digital newspaper archive
 * Facebook
 * YouTube
 * Instagram
 * LinkedIn
 * Twitter
 * Newsletters

 * Advertise with us
 * Guardian Labs
 * Search jobs


Back to top
© 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights
reserved. (dcr)