Jeremy Corbyn is being sued for defamation and faces being questioned about his row with a Jewish blogger he claimed lacked ‘English irony’
Jeremy Corbyn faces being hauled into the witness box to answer questions in court about his row with a Jewish blogger he claimed lacked ‘English irony’.
Richard Millett, 50, launched libel action after Mr Corbyn made comments about him on television that he viewed as defamatory, MailOnline revealed last year.
On the programme, the Labour leader painted a picture of Mr Millett as 'incredibly disruptive', claiming that the police wanted to throw him out of a pro-Palestine event in Parliament until Mr Corbyn said he could stay.
Mr Millett, whose father fought for Britain in WWII, says that the allegations were entirely untrue and have caused lasting damage to his reputation. He is suing Corbyn for £100,000.
The papers were filed at the High Court today after months of delays as Mr Corbyn’s legal team repeatedly stalled for political reasons, MailOnline understands.
The Labour leader’s lawyers asked for an extension on three occasions, saying that Mr Corbyn was too busy in Brexit negotiations, the local elections and the EU poll to deal with the libel case.
A Labour spokesman said: ‘This claim is absurd and will be robustly challenged.’
Now that court proceedings have been instigated, the Labour leader will face a public grilling from top barrister William Bennett QC unless he settles out of court.
The hearing is expected to take place within eight to 12 months. In addition to damages of up to £100,000, the Labour leader will be hit with a further £100,000 in costs if he loses.
Mr Millett said: 'Jeremy Corbyn has constantly been trying to paint me as some aggressive traitor who has brushes with police.
'Listening to his interview, you'd have thought that the police were on the verge of hauling me out of parliamentary events and it was only saintly Corbyn who stopped that happening.
Richard Millett, 50, launched libel action after Mr Corbyn made comments about him being 'incredibly disruptive' that he viewed as defamatory
‘It's totally untrue. It's preposterous. I think he just said it on the hoof, under questioning on the BBC on Sunday. He can't actually back it up.'
The row began when MailOnline exclusively revealed footage of Mr Corbyn saying that British 'Zionists' had 'no sense of English irony' despite having 'lived in Britain all of their lives', comments that were slammed by Jewish groups as anti-Semitic.
On the Andrew Marr Show the following week, the Labour leader said he was referring to an event at which two British Zionists were disruptive.
He said: 'I was at a meeting in the House of Commons and the two people I referred to had been incredibly disruptive.
'Indeed, the police wanted to throw them out of the meeting. I didn't. I said they should remain in the meeting.
'They had been disruptive of a number of meetings. At the meeting
