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Laurence Fox has officially entered the finding out stage of libelling strangers on the internet – 21 favourite reactions

Oonagh Keating. Updated January 30th, 2024

Laurence Fox‘s two-way libel case with three Twitter/X users has come to an end, and not how he would have wanted.

It was triggered by his reaction to a post from October 2020, in which Sainsbury’s declared racists not welcome.

So far, so uncontroversial, right? Not to Fox, who had just founded the Reclaim Party.

I won't be shopping in your supermarkets again while you promote racial discrimination and segregation. I sincerely hope others join me.

People speculated that he objected to anti-racist policies because he, himself, is racist. In response, he called ex-Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Crystal – Colin Seymour – paedophiles. They both sued him.

The former Lewis actor and losing London Mayoral candidate counter-sued them, as well as actress Nicola Thorp, for libel, claiming their accusations of racism against him seriously damaged his reputation and drastically reduced his work opportunities.

The judge didn’t rule on whether Fox is a racist, but she did rule that any reputational damage hadn’t been shown to have been caused by anyone calling him racist, rather than by his own behaviour.

‘The law does not regard the particular imputations against Mr Fox that he was a racist, made by Mr Blake, Mr Seymour or Ms Thorp, as defamatory.

That is because, although to express such an opinion is certainly of inherently defamatory tendency, Mr Fox did not sufficiently discharge the burden the law places on a defamation claimant to establish that their particular tweets – rather than anything else he himself, or others, did or said – as a matter of fact and evidence probably caused or were likely to cause serious harm to his reputation by making readers adversely change their minds about him to that degree.’

Fox made a long rambling statement outside the court, which you may or may not choose to watch. It basically took him nine minutes to say ‘Everybody else is wrong.’

Nicola Thorp shared some thoughts.

If you were wondering whether Fox has learnt anything from the case, it seems not.

On a Nicola Thorp post saying they won on all counts - 'I’m not sure you did. Anyone who hires @nicolathorp_ does so in the knowledge that she is unequivocally, unashamedly and publicly a racist. Sue me.'

Here’s a little of what people have been saying about the ruling.

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