British inventor and innovator Sir James Dyson lost his libel claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), the publisher of the Daily Mirror, on Friday (December 1). He sued the publisher over a "vicious and vitriolic" article published in January 2022 which personally attacked him and undermined his work encouraging young people into engineering.
It was revealed that the Daily Mirror article of journalist Brian Reade referred to the engineer as "the vacuum-cleaner tycoon who championed Vote Leave due to the economic opportunities it would bring to British industry before moving his global head office to Singapore."
"Kids, talk the talk but then screw your country and if anyone complains, tell them to suck it up," Reade's article further read.
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Mirror Says Author's Article Was an 'Honest Opinion'
The Mirror defended the case filed by Dyson, arguing that Reade's article was an "honest opinion."
For this, the High Court of Justice made a decision to dismiss Dyson's claim in a sentence given on Friday, finding both that MGN's defense had succeeded and that Dyson did not prove he suffered serious harm to his reputation.
"In the present case the claimant cannot demonstrate that he has suffered financial loss as a result of these publications," High Court judge Robert Jay said in the ruling. "Nor can he show that his philanthropic work, particularly directed to young people and schools, has been harmed in any way."
In response to the decision, an MGN spokesperson said that the firm welcomed the judgment, which upheld the "rights of [its] columnists to share honestly held opinions, even about powerful or wealthy individuals."
