Christopher Harborne - the Reform mega donor who gave Farage £5m - is suing ex-Reform deputy leader, Ben Habib. The particulars of claim have now been published. And we need to talk about them. 1/
Harborne is suing Habib over claims made in a podcast in which he claimed "the 2019 General Election was, was sewn up between Nigel Farage, Christopher Harborne, and Boris Johnson, and it was a monetary deal." That's the nub of the claim. Remember it. Because we'll come back to it. 2/
The filing then goes on to cite all the people who retweeted it but here's where it gets interesting. The lawyers note that on May 27, from journalists at @thenerve.news contacted Christopher Harborne in relation to the allegation that the 2019 election was "sewn up". 3/
The claim notes "the impact & importance attached to the defendant's allegation". Well, I'm glad they agree on that. Because the very same solicitors instructed to make this claim and who have signed a "statement of truth" simply refused point blank to answer any of our questions. 4/
On June 12, @thenerve.news published our investigation which assessed a whole range of facts, evidence & witnesses to establish whether the 2019 general election *was* in some way "rigged" between Harborne, Johnson and Farage. You can read it here. thenerve.news 5/
www.thenerve.news
Schillings repeatedly refused to answer any qs we put to Christopher Harborne. No denial was issued. No attempt was made - through repeated inquiries - to respond to any one of the evidential points we made. And note: we published the piece *after* Harborne had filed the claim against Habib. 6/
Note: we didn't rely on Habib's allegation. This was careful, fact-checked. legally reviewed reporting by me, Lucia Osborne-Crowley & @thenerve.news team. And there is evidence that suggests some sort of "deal". With Christopher Harborne in the thick of it. 7/ thenerve.news
www.thenerve.news
Yet, Christopher Harborne & his solicitors made no attempt despite repeated inquiries to "correct the record" or to respond to any of the particulars of the claim prior to publication. Even though in the claim against Habib, they cite lack of a pre-publication right to reply in their evidence! 8/
This legal filing raises more questions than it answers. There's not even any attempt to deny the claim! And, as we say our piece, there's abundant public interest. 2019 was the critical election that gave us Brexit, the Boris Johnson government & everything that flowed from that. 9/
Please read the article. Britain is *finally* asking the right questions over Farage's finances. We've published a whole series on Harborne only possible through the generous support of @thenerve.news members. Please consider joining us. Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏 thenerve.news