Dale Vince has briefed the Guardian that he is suing Guido’s editor for daring to publish the actual words he said in an interview with Times Radio’s Stig Abell.

Dale – who retains the services of former Boris spinner Lee Cain – also briefed the Guardian that he is going to block Guido from being read in Britain by getting a judge to order internet service providers to create Dale’s own personal firewall to censor Guido – in the same way the Chinese Communist Party operates a political firewall on the internet. Guido would in Dale’s fantasy become Samizdata, read in Starmer’s Britain only by tech savvy users or on the dark web.

Vince says he is going to have to do this because Guido has kept his servers (and the editor himself) offshore and ignored British court orders for twenty years. Guido could of course continue to do so…

For the first time in twenty years I am not going to avail of that safe haven protection. I will, along with Richard Tice and Shaun Bailey not be going down on bended knee to this thin-skinned, narcissistic bully. We have no intention of apologising for reporting and commenting on his disgraceful equivocation. We’re going to make a stand and defend free speech and our reporting of the actual words he said.

Dale Vince is also suing Reform’s Richard Tice MP and Lord Bailey for commenting on his claim regarding Hamas that “one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist“. Likewise he threatened to sue (now former) Tory MPs Andrew Percy, Mark Jenkinson and Michael Fabricant. The Tory MPs reluctantly agreed a mutual statement on the advice of the Conservative Party’s lawyers rather than risk an expensive legal battle. None of them wanted to, all of them thought their comments were fair and told Guido that regrettably they had to withdraw them under financial duress. Not one of the MPs wanted to back down, they just did not want to risk a costly battle.

GB News made an apology for Shaun Bailey’s on air comments at the insistence of their legal insurers. Lord Bailey is however standing by the truth of his comments. He is a Christian and refuses to be bullied by Dale Vince’s lawyers into making a statement that he believes is untrue.

Dale is not suing any of the many other publications that reported his outrageous characterisation of Hamas as freedom fighters. The Labour Party donor is only threatening his perceived political opponents, using his vast wealth to bully them into not criticising him. This meets the legal definition of a SLAPP – a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. A favourite tactic of publicity shy oligarchs who don’t like scrutiny.

Dale’s been claiming – so far unchallenged – that the clip was edited. It was not edited or manipulated or spliced in any way, it was one contiguous 16 second clip of the only really newsworthy and widely reported part of the Times Radio interview and the context is clear:

While we’re on the subject of extremist donors and returning their donations…https://t.co/rkaxVMJqZR pic.twitter.com/NxHEgrBKKz

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) March 13, 2024

Dale has only just realised that unlike GB News’ insurers or the Tory MPs we are going to stand up to him. We’re not apologising and we’re not settling. We’re fighting to defend our reporting of the truth and his attempts to censor criticism.

Paul Staines

If Labour wins the next election, Keir Starmer may have to give evidence as prime minister about his past.  Awkwardly he may have to face his close former Doughty Street chambers colleague at a long-running public inquiry into the police.  The Labour leader has been urged to give evidence to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which is examining the activities of the Special Demonstration Squad and National Public Order Intelligence Unit – so-called “spy cops” – since 1968.

The inquiry was set up by Theresa May while Home Secretary in 2015 to investigate how more than 100 secret police officers targeted individuals and groups linked to political and social justice campaigns. Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. A group of 18 environmental campaigners want him to answer questions over whether he helped to conceal how some spy cops caused the wrongful prosecutions of activists.

Starmer’s former chambers colleague, Maya Sikand KC, is representing ex-spy cop turned whistle blower Peter Francis. His revelations, which include claims that undercover police spied on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, triggered the inquiry.

In an embarrassing twist, another of Starmer’s ex-girlfriends, Phillipa Kaufmann KC, with whom he lived between 1997 and 2001, is also representing alleged victims at the Undercover Policing Inquiry. The inquiry, which was only expected to last three years, has gone on for almost a decade so far costing taxpayers £82 million. The inquiry has revealed that law enforcement officers were improperly having illicit sexual relations whilst on the job.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is agog today as an inquest in Gibraltar outlines how fragile their relationships with the rest of the world really are. A hugely expensive KC-fuelled inquest into the resignation of the former Chief of Police in Gibraltar, Ian McGrail, will focus on the fractious relationship between Britain and Spain over the future of the British controlled “Rock”. A dispute that continues to this day.

Evidence will hear that the hapless McGrail – whose force was described as a mix between The Sweeney and Life on Mars – drew opprobrium from FCO careerist Nick Pyle as acting Governor, when the Royal Gibraltar Police Force smashed into an alleged smuggler’s boat in Spanish waters killing two men in 2020. Pyle was vastly concerned that this action, and a subsequent legal action by the dead men’s families, would affect the delicate post Brexit negotiations over Gibraltar and used it as an excuse to encourage McGrail from office.

Luckily for the FCO, help is at hand from leftie lawyers at Doughty Street Chambers whose young KC Ben Cooper is furthering McGrail’s “early retirement.” Which is odd. As batting for McGrail are two other Doughty Street Chambers briefs Adam Wagner and Caolifhionn Gallagher KC, who have racked up a combined £212,672 in bills so far. Whoever comes on top from the Doughty Street Chambers teams the FCO will be sweating.

Guido can reveal that  following on from the Guardian’s apology, Dan Wootton has now also won an apology plus substantial damages from the Daily Mirror after they reprinted the subsequently discredited Byline Times allegations about him. The official Mirror apology reads:

An article headlined “Met Police launches probe into ‘Dan Wootton sex offences’ allegations” was published on our website on 2 October 2023 and removed later that day following a complaint from Dan Wootton. Last week, the Metropolitan police and Police Scotland said that they had concluded their investigations and are taking no further action. We accept that we were wrong to have published the article and apologise unreservedly to Mr Wootton for any upset the article may have caused. Mr Wootton has restated that the police inquiries have exonerated him of any criminal wrongdoing.

Mirror Group Newspapers are also paying substantial five-figure damages to Wootton. This means the country’s two biggest left-wing newspapers have apologised for following up the shoddy reporting of Byline Times. Byline Times are currently busy taking on JK Rowling and have yet to concede to Dan. Either Dan or JK could likely bankrupt the rag…

ISIS bride Shamima Begum’s hopes have been daeshed again as the Court of Appeal rules that the Home Secretary was entitled to reach the decision that she was dangerous – even if there had been evidence of trafficking. Begum’s lot may take this to the Supreme Court…

Tory MPs are reposting Sajid Javid’s statement from after the last ruling this time last year, which still applies:

“I welcome today’s court ruling, which has again upheld my decision to remove an individual’s citizenship on national security grounds. This is a complex case but Home Secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it.“

CCHQ not missing ythe chance to highlight Starmer’s sympathies:

🚨 REMINDER: Keir Starmer doesn’t think Shamima Begum should have been stripped of her citizenship. pic.twitter.com/75F4lUGgQA

— Conservatives (@Conservatives) February 23, 2024

Another chapter closes in the now-five year saga…

Dan Wootton’s lawyers have sent a letter to Byline Times, its editor Peter Jukes, and the journalists Dan Evans and Tom Latchem, informing them that Dan will be going after them for a ruinously large sum in damages and costs. Despite the contentious Supreme Court ruling in ZXC v Bloomberg setting the precedent that on privacy grounds those under investigation ought not to be named until charged, Byline Times maliciously chose to name Dan for political reasons (having themselves been the ethically dubious complainant to the Metropolitan Police in the first place).

Having ignored the established legal protections in place for those accused of criminal offences in an attempt to destroy Dan’s reputation, Byline, Jukes, Evans and Latchem now face the potential consequences, including financial and reputational ruin, that may await them. Guido’s advice is to cut your losses…