The UK taxpayers footed a bill exceeding £34,000 to cover the legal expenses of Michelle Donelan, the Science Secretary, in a libel case. This sum is more than double what the government initially disclosed.
Donelan found herself in legal trouble after wrongly accusing an academic of sympathizing with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group. The legal fees amounted to an extra £19,000, on top of the £15,000 settlement for the libel case.
The Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) announced in March 2024 that it would cover Donelan’s legal expenses, sparking public outrage over the use of taxpayers’ money.
Critics, including opposition parties and some Conservative MPs, demanded her resignation, insisting that she should cover the costs herself after apologizing and retracting her statements.
Initially, the department refused to reveal the total legal expenses incurred by Donelan. However, a letter from Sarah Munby, the department’s top official, to the shadow science secretary, Peter Kyle, has now unveiled the overall bill.
The letter disclosed that in addition to the costs incurred by the government’s legal department of £7,785 for internal legal advice, Donelan used the services of an external private legal counsel which cost a further £11,600.
Munby, the DSIT permanent secretary, emphasized that civil servants, including lawyers, provided advice and clearances to the cabinet minister, but did not divulge the contents of this advice.
“It’s a slap in the face to hardworking families up and down the country that over £34,000 of taxpayers’ money was wasted on unprofessional and libelous behavior from a Conservative cabinet minister.”
“Instead of trying to cover up the true cost of her actions, Michelle Donelan should have had the decency to pay the money back to the taxpayer.”
Peter Kyle
Donelan apologized and paid damages in March 2024 after accusing two academics of “sharing extremist views”, and one of them, Prof Kate Sang, of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, of supporting Hamas.
Legal Action Against Donelan
Kate Sang took legal action against Michelle Donelan after the minister used her personal social media account to call on UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to sever ties with Sang and Dr. Kamna Patel from University College London.
Donelan expressed her strong disapproval at their appointment to an expert advisory group on equality, diversity, and inclusion within Research England.
Following Donelan’s public statement, UKRI suspended the operations of the advisory group and initiated an investigation into the allegations.
However, the investigation yielded no evidence supporting Donelan’s complaints against the academics or justifying their removal from the advisory group.
In response to a freedom of information request, UKRI disclosed that it spent £15,000, including VAT, on the investigation and over £8,200 on legal advice. It’s worth noting that UKRI operates independently but is funded by taxpayers’ money.
It means that overall, UKRI and the UK government have spent more than £61,460 as a result of Donelan’s remarks.
Donelan’s evidence included Sang retweeting a Guardian article from October 2023 headlined: “Suella Braverman urges police to crack down on Hamas support in UK”, to which Sang added the comment, “This is disturbing.”
In a recent statement, the senior Conservative Party member admitted to misunderstanding Sang’s remarks, clarifying that Sang’s comment referred to the broader article rather than expressing support for Hamas.
The DSIT admitted last month that it had paid the damages and legal costs, adding, “This was subject to all the usual cross-government processes and aims to reduce the overall costs to the taxpayer that could result from protracted legal action.”
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