Andrew Bridgen must pay Matt Hancock legal fees of £40,000 in libel claim

The MP Andrew Bridgen has been ordered to pay Matt Hancock more than £40,000 in legal fees after an early stage of their libel battle.

The MP for North West Leicestershire is bringing a libel claim against the former health secretary regarding a January 2023 message on X that followed Bridgen posting a comment about Covid-19 vaccines.

The high court in London previously heard that Bridgen wanted to “clear his name” after allegedly being accused of antisemitism in a “malicious” social media post by the former I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!

Hours later, Hancock wrote on X that “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”.

Bridgen believes “every person reading the tweet knew it was about me”, that it was “seriously defamatory and untrue” and intended to cause “grievous harm” to his reputation, the court was told.

In a ruling last week, Mrs Justice Steyn “struck out” certain parts of Bridgen’s case but did not dismiss the whole claim, instead giving the independent MP a chance to make amendments and “remedy the deficiencies”.