Dale Vince ‘resurrecting’ failed libel claim, High Court hears

Green industrialist Dale Vince’s claim that a Daily Mail article misused his personal data is a “resurrection” of a previous failed libel claim, the High Court has heard.

Mr Vince is suing the paper’s publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), after the article headlined “Labour repays £100,000 to sex pest donor” was printed in June 2023.

The story reported that the Labour Party was handing back money to donor Davide Serra with a picture showing Mr Vince holding a Just Stop Oil banner.

An employment tribunal in 2022 heard Mr Serra had made sexist comments to a female colleague which were found to amount to unlawful harassment related to sex.

Mr Vince brought legal action against ANL last year saying the media organisation had defamed him by publishing the article online and in its print newspaper, but a judge threw out the claim.

Mr Vince now claims ANL misused his personal data in a way that was inaccurate and unfair and which was likely to damage his reputation.

ANL opposes the claim and has asked the court to throw it out.

Antony White KC, for ANL, said in written submissions for a High Court hearing on Wednesday that the current claim is a “resurrection” of last year’s legal action.

He said: “The claim could and should, if it had any merit, have been brought in the first action, but Mr Vince chose to leave it dormant for his own tactical reasons, as to which he has provided no evidence or explanation, resurrecting it only once it became clear the first claim would be struck out.

“In essence, having failed in the first claim, Mr Vince has simply come up with a different way of putting the same case, so as to begin the process all over again. This is an abuse of process.”

The court heard how the image in the article of Mr Vince included his name in the caption, while Mr Serra is mentioned from the second paragraph onwards.

This picture, published in print and on The Mail+ app, was changed to one of Mr Serra online 47 minutes after publication, while the original picture of Mr Vince remained in the print version.

Aidan Eardley KC, for Mr Vince, said in written submissions: “A person in the claimant’s position may reasonably expect to receive media coverage of his business and political activities.

“He may even reasonably expect that such coverage will be highly critical at times.

“But he has no reason to expect that he will find himself the subject of headlines and captions that have no basis whatsoever in his own conduct but which instead make unfounded suggestions of sexual misconduct.”

The hearing, before Mr Justice Swift, is expected to conclude on Wednesday.