MP wins £30,000 in libel damages

Leeds East Labour MP and shadow cabinet member Richard Burgon has said he is “delighted” to have won £30,000 damages in a High Court libel action against The Sun newspaper over an online story published in 2017, claiming that a heavy metal band which he performed with had used Nazi imagery.

A MEMBER of the shadow cabinet has said he is “delighted” to have won £30,000 damages in a High Court libel action against The Sun over claims a heavy metal band he performed with used Nazi imagery.

Yorkshire MP and Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon sued the newspaper over an April 2017 online article which said he had joined a Leeds band that “delights in Nazi symbols”.

The Labour MP for Leeds East said an image tweeted by the band Dream Troll, which appears to use the “S” from the logo of the notorious Nazi paramilitary organisation the SS, was a “spoof” of Black Sabbath’s 1975 album We Sold Our Soul for Rock ‘n’ Roll.

But The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its political editor Tom Newton Dunn argued that the image was “strongly reminiscent of Nazi iconography” and that Mr Burgon “demonstrated terrible misjudgment and exposed himself to ridicule”.

Giving judgment at the High Court in London yesterday, Mr Justice Dingemans ruled in Mr Burgon’s favour on his claim for libel, awarding him damages and an injunction to prevent further publication of the article.

But the judge dismissed Mr Burgon’s claim for malicious falsehood, finding that “Mr Newton Dunn was acting honestly when he wrote the story”.

Following the ruling, Mr Burgon tweeted: “Delighted to have won my High Court case against The Sun. Their slur attempting to link me to ‘Nazi symbols’ was held to be false and defamatory.

“The judge ordered The Sun to pay £30,000 in damages. With that I’ll fund a paid justice internship for a young person from Leeds.”

At a hearing in January, Mr Burgon’s barrister Adam Speker

said the article involved a “deliberate misrepresentation”.

He submitted that The Sun had “manufactured a knowingly false and misleading story” by “doctoring the image published by the band” by removing the hashtag “#blacksabbath” which accompanied the tweet.

Mr Speker said the article was “as far removed from responsible journalism as one could possibly imagine”, adding: “Quite simply, they were just out to get him.”

But Adam Wolanski, for the defendants, pointed out that Mr Burgon “aspires to be Secretary of State for Justice, to occupy the office of Lord Chancellor and to be a senior member of Her Majesty’s cabinet”.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Dingemans noted that the online article continued to be published for more than six months and that “there has been no apology”, adding that an award of damages of £30,000 was “appropriate”.