Matt Hancock’s libel battle with fellow former MP Andrew Bridgen over a Twitter post accusing him of “anti-Semitism” will go to a full High Court trial, a judge has ruled.
Hancock, the former Tory health secretary, is locked in a bitter feud with ex-North West Leicestershire MP Bridgen over a January 2023 Twitter post in which he decried: “The disgusting and dangerous antisemitic, anti-vax, anti-scientific conspiracy theories spouted by a sitting MP this morning are unacceptable and have absolutely no place in our society.”
Earlier that day, Bridgen had shared a link on social media to an article “concerning data about deaths and other adverse reactions linked to Covid vaccines”, stating: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”
Mr Hancock used a question to then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to say: “Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the disgusting, antisemitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories that have been promulgated online this morning are not only deeply offensive, but anti-scientific and have no place in this House or in our wider society?”
He then posted a clip of the question on Twitter, with a caption repeating the accusations apparently aimed at Bridgen.
Bridgen lost the Conservative whip that day, and went on to sit as an Independent before losing his seat at 2024 General Election.
He has brought libel proceedings against Hancock, complaining about the “anti-Semitism” slur in the Twitter post.
In a judgment on Monday, Mrs Justice Collins Rice rejected a bid by Hancock for summary judgment, after he asked her to end the case and rule Bridgen had no prospect of winning the dispute.
The judge concluded that should be decided after a “full examination of the evidence both ways.”
“My task on this application is not to consider who has the better case at this stage, much less who is more likely to win”, she ruled. “My task is to consider whether Mr Bridgen’s case is unreal.”
She added: “I am not in a position to conclude at this stage that Mr Bridgen’s prospects of success on either matter are such as to be determinable now to be ‘unreal’, and in any event there are, in my view, compelling reasons for further investigation at trial and a fully considered judgment thereafter.”
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Mrs Justice Collins Rice said the case was “therefore set to proceed to the full evidential stages and on to trial”.
Hancock is set to argue that he was expressing an honestly held opinion, and he also challenges Bridgen’s assertion that the Tweet caused serious harm to his reputation.
Bridgen has counter claimed that Hancock does not actually hold the beliefs that he professes.
The judge characterised the dispute as a “particular contest of political free speech”.
Bridgen sat as a Reclaim Party MP after being expelled by the Conservatives, and he then became an independent MP after a falling out with his new party.
He has said he launched the libel action to “clear his name”, and had hoped to achieve that aim before the General election.
Hancock, who resigned as health secretary after footage emerged of him kissing an aide in breach of Covid-19 social distancing rules, left Parliament voluntarily last year.
He has previously called the case “absurd” and labelled Mr Bridgen’s claims “ridiculous”.
The judge gave Bridgen an opportunity to amend parts of his case, after finding them “defective”, and said the case would now move on to preparations for the full trial.