Laurence Fox now suing man who referred to as him “racist” in a Twitter row | UK | News | EUROtoday

Laurence Fox is now suing a person who referred to as him a “racist” on-line, the High Court has heard.

The actor and activist is taking authorized motion towards Mukhtar Ali Yassin, accusing him of libel following a row on Twitter in May 2023.

Ben Gallop, representing Fox, informed the courtroom that Mr Yassin had made “seriously defamatory allegations of racism against my client that are bare comments”.

Mr Yassin is defending the declare. Neither he nor Mr Fox have been in courtroom.

The decide, Mrs Justice Collins Rice, dominated {that a} listening to would happen to determine if the statements have been reality or opinion with a preliminary listening to to be held at a later date.

This comes simply two days after the identical decide dominated that Mr Fox libelled Simon Blake, a former Stonewall trustee, and RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Crystal.

He referred to as them “paedophiles” on X (previously Twitter) in October 2020 throughout an alternate about Sainsbury’s marking Black History Month.

The decide referred to as his allegations “seriously harmful, defamatory and baseless”.

In the identical ruling, the decide dismissed counter-claims by Fox towards Mr Blake, Crystal and broadcaster Nicola Thorpe, after they described him as “a racist”.

Colin Seymour (the true identify of Crystal) stated they confronted “overwhelming and distressing” abuse after Mr Fox’s tweet, including they felt much less protected as a drag performer.

Mr Blake, now chief govt of Mental Health First Aid England, stated the wrong suggestion that homosexual males are paedophiles is “a trope as old as the hills”.

Fox has stated he plans to attraction the ruling, describing the case as a “nothing burger”.