Laurence Fox to make appeal bid against libel judgments after ‘paedophile’ row

Laurence Fox is making a bid to challenge High Court rulings after he was ordered to pay a total of £180,000 in damages to two people he libelled when he referred to them as paedophiles on social media.

The actor-turned-politician was successfully sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal over a row on Twitter, now known as X.

Mr Fox called Mr Blake and the former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, whose real name is Colin Seymour, “paedophiles” in an exchange about a decision by Sainsbury’s to mark Black History Month in October 2020.

In judgments in January and April, Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled in favour of Mr Blake and Mr Seymour and said Mr Fox should pay the pair £90,000 each in damages.

The judge dismissed Mr Fox’s counter claims against the pair and broadcaster Nicola Thorp over tweets accusing him of racism.

According to court records, the Reclaim Party founder is now seeking permission to appeal against the judge’s rulings.

No hearing date has been set.

Following the January judgment where Mrs Justice Collins Rice found Mr Fox had libelled Mr Blake and Mr Seymour, the former Lewis star described the ruling as a “nothing burger” and said that “here we are sat, two million bloody quid in”.

Mr Fox said at the time he planned to appeal against the ruling to get a meaning of the word racist.

In her judgment in April, Mrs Justice Collins Rice said Mr Blake and Mr Seymour are “entitled to a complete vindication, the undoing of the reputational impact of the libels and the resumption of public and private life without any trace on their characters of the long and dark shadow cast by even the most casual public bandying about of allegations of criminal paedophilia”.

The judge also said there “is no element of punishing Mr Fox” in awarding the sum of damages, adding: “It is a purely compensatory award to redress the damage done and restore the equilibrium that his libels violated, and which he has not taken the opportunity to restore more fully himself.”