The star witness for a discredited Channel 4 hit-piece on Arron Banks has since been charged with fraud. It’s yet another cause for skepticism of the 2019 reports, which rested heavily on Kimber’s claims that Banks travelled to Russia to secure mining investments, which he then used to bankroll the Brexit campaign. Kimber will appear in court today. Arron Banks told Guido he was “highly delighted” to see Channel 4’s allegations “go down in flames”. He added it:
“vindicates what I’ve always said Channel 4 has been doing and that’s making stuff up. They should’ve checked their sources”.
All that glitters is not gold…
Yesterday Carole Cadwalladr paid Arron Banks £500,000 in costs financed by deluded crowdfunders, who donated to fund her defence of her untrue Russian conspiracy theories because they wanted to believe in a magical explanation for why they lost the referendum.
Arron magnanimously tells Guido that “I’d like to thank each and every one of the crowdfunders.” Nice…
The Court of Appeal has denied Carole Cadwalladr’s request to appeal her loss to the Supreme Court. In the decision, the court said an appeal to the Supreme Court is only granted when a case “raises an arguable point of law of general public importance”, in the court’s words “this decision does not do so”. Carole wasn’t challenging the court order to pay a third of Banks’ appeal costs, only that she pay 60% of the first proceedings. However, the court ruled that “in our view, there is no arguable case”…
The court records include one further detail which many in the media could do with remembering:
“Ms Cadwalladr does not challenge the court’s decision that Mr Banks was the successful party overall.”
Cadwalladr’s total crowdfunding was in excess of £1.1m – fools and their money. Banks tells Guido “To quote Trump: “ I’m bored of all the winning now!” Time for Carole to get back to journalism…”
Read the full judgement below:
If the Telegraph goes to an open auction, there are likely to be trade bidders who will be focused on the profit and loss account and not over-bidding like the Barclays did. They will sweat the asset.
There will also be other bidders who will view it as a prestige trophy asset giving them influence over public life and politics. Who can afford to pay the price?
Some names in the frame for forming a syndicate include billionaires Peter Hargreaves, Peter Cruddas and Paul Marshall. Arron Banks might be tempted back into the fray in a syndicate. Maybe Narayana Murthy might fancy diversifying out of information technology into media and making the paper’s editorial line more sympathetic to his son-in-law? A look down the list of big Tory donors might give a clue as to potential members of a syndicate…
The Spectator could be spun out from the Telegraph – it makes solid profits (circa £2 million), and could function as a stand alone asset. A management buyout, perhaps with external financial backers, could be a possibility. Lord Ashcroft was rumoured to have contemplated offering £20 million for the magazine some years ago, Guido suspects it will go for more like double that to a trophy buyer…
The Court of Appeal has ordered that Carole Cadwalladr must pay 60% of Arron Banks’ legal fees to the tune of £1,242,634*. Having already apologised and coughed up £35,000 in damages, the Court has today ruled she must now find another couple of million down the back of the sofa before the end of the month. Beyond that, and the interest starts raking up at “2% per annum above the Bank of England base rate from time to time”…
The Court said:
“The Claimant was the successful party on the appeal and overall. He has established that the Defendant was responsible for the unlawful publication to 100,000 or more people in this jurisdiction of a serious imputation, which caused serious harm to the Claimant’s reputation, which the Defendant accepts was not true, and which (as she also accepted on appeal) was no longer defensible in the public interest. He has established a right to substantial compensation, now agreed in the sum of £35,000. He has also secured an apology, an acknowledgment of the falsity of the meaning complained of, the amendment of the TED Talk, an undertaking not to repeat the allegation complained of, and the removal of some Tweets…”
Banks tells Guido “victory is final and sweet“. Presumably the mainstream media will actually cover the news this time…
*The total costs in the case are some £3.2 million when you include her own costs.
Arron Banks says Carole Cadwalladr has finally coughed up £35,000 in damages following her appeal court loss in February, along with an apology. She had exactly two weeks from 28th April to hand over the cash. Today is the 14th day…
I received £35k of damages from Carole Cadwalldr today, an apology, an undertaking not to tell fibs again, and the infamous TED talk edited out. Cost decision to follow. Total vindication & a lesson to all journalists to only publish the facts! @jonsopel, as Trump said you beaut
— Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) May 12, 2023
Banks reckons the total cost decision could see her facing multi-million pound costs. For some reason, most of the mainstream press still haven’t covered this…
