The claimant brought a claim for libel against the defendant newspaper for articles published which alleged he was prepared to act in breach of the MPs’ Code of Conduct. The defendant pleaded the defences of justification, honest comment and Reynolds privilege. Held: The claim failed, as the articles were protected by the Reynolds defence, the defamatory factual sting was substantially true and one of the defamatory meanings was honest comment.
Gavin Millar QC and Ben Silverstone were involved in this case.