RACHEL ROW
Rachel Riley in court battle with Corbyn’s ex-aide over ‘damaging’ tweet branding her ‘as dangerous as she is stupid’
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TV presenter Rachel Riley has begun a court battle today with a former aide to Jeremy Corbyn over a "damaging" tweet calling her "as dangerous as she is stupid".
Riley, 35, who appears in the Channel 4 show Countdown, says she was libelled in a tweet posted by Laura Murray.
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Ms Murray is disputing the claim at the High Court in London.
After Mr Corbyn had an egg thrown at him by a Brexit supporter during a visit to a mosque in North London in March 2019, Riley shared a January 2019 tweet about a similar attack on former British National Party leader Nick Griffin.
The original tweet by columnist Owen Jones which Riley shared said: "I think sound life advice is, if you don't want eggs thrown at you, don't be a Nazi."
She had added "Good advice", with emojis of a red rose and an egg.
Ms Murray then tweeted: "Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer.
"Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi.
"This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever."
'SERIOUS HARM'
William Bennett QC told Mr Justice Nicklin today that the tweet posted by Ms Murray caused serious harm to Riley.
Riley says the tweet contained "defamatory statements of fact" about her.
"We do say that the tweet complained of did cause serious harm," Mr Bennett told the judge.
"She was accused of risking inciting violence and told she was dangerous."
He said the tweet had been published to a "huge number of people".
A barrister representing Ms Murray disagreed with the case put forward by Ms Riley.
William McCormick QC told the judge, in a written case outline, that Ms Murray's tweet was "true".
"The claimant (Ms Riley) chose to tweet to her 625,000-plus followers about a violent attack in a manner which was both stupid and dangerous," he said.
"It was obvious that her tweet would provoke hostile reactions of the kind that did in fact emerge.
"What the defendant (Ms Murray) tweeted was true, reflected her honestly-held opinions and was a responsible exercise of her own rights of expression on a matter of real public importance."
He said it was "tolerably clear" that Ms Riley had "wrongly regarded" the libel claim as part of a long-running dispute over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
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Mr McCormick said it was an issue on which she "feels strongly".
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But he said the case was not about anti-Semitism but about the "need for restraint in public discourse".
The trial, which began today, is due to end later this week.
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