Many people will know that my family and I have been subject to a
campaign of false allegations by Esther Baker for the past 4 1/2
years. Yesterday there was a court judgment Baker v Hemming
[2019] EWHC 2950 (QB) which formally confirmed that the
allegations were false. Esther Baker, who had brought a libel
claim against me, dropped her defence of Truth to my counter-claim
and was taken by the judge as no longer trying to prove her
allegations. Due to Baker's various breaches of court rules and
orders, she has been barred from further repeating her allegations
even in the court proceedings. Further claim of mine in libel
against Baker are ongoing. There is a good summary in the Daily
Mail here.
This demonstrates the challenge in fighting false allegations in today's Britain. A substantial campaign was built up to promote allegations which had no substance to them. Various Labour MPs and in particular Jess Phillips and Tom Watson supported this campaign. Jess Phillips is not and never has been the constituency member of parliament for the Esther Baker. However, she dedicated a considerable amount of time to ensuring that the allegations got the maximum publicity including inviting Baker to meet her in the House of Commons.
Stephen Twigg, John Mann and Sarah Champion were also associated with the issue in some way. The fact is that Jess Phillips and Tom Watson assisted Baker for political advantage. This had a number of consequences for me personally, but my main concern was the effect on my family. I took the decision to remove myself from standing for elected office because of the need to protect my
family - getting ineffectual support from the police.
Now I have the formal judgment from the High Court I would intend taking this issue further. I do not think it is right for the Labour Party to go around promoting false allegations of child rape against their political opponents. I have today put in a formal complaint to the Labour Party to see whether this gets official support from the Labour leadership.
This will not be the end of this matter. Jess Phillips has spent considerable time complaining about threats to MPs. However, she has herself publicly promoted false allegations that she should know would cause threats to be made against me. In fact, Declan Canning was convicted in court for making death threats against me. I welcome the election of Sir Lindsay Hoyle as the new Speaker of the House of Commons and I welcome his desires to see a country in which there are fewer threats made against elected officials.
This demonstrates the challenge in fighting false allegations in today's Britain. A substantial campaign was built up to promote allegations which had no substance to them. Various Labour MPs and in particular Jess Phillips and Tom Watson supported this campaign. Jess Phillips is not and never has been the constituency member of parliament for the Esther Baker. However, she dedicated a considerable amount of time to ensuring that the allegations got the maximum publicity including inviting Baker to meet her in the House of Commons.
Stephen Twigg, John Mann and Sarah Champion were also associated with the issue in some way. The fact is that Jess Phillips and Tom Watson assisted Baker for political advantage. This had a number of consequences for me personally, but my main concern was the effect on my family. I took the decision to remove myself from standing for elected office because of the need to protect my
family - getting ineffectual support from the police.
Now I have the formal judgment from the High Court I would intend taking this issue further. I do not think it is right for the Labour Party to go around promoting false allegations of child rape against their political opponents. I have today put in a formal complaint to the Labour Party to see whether this gets official support from the Labour leadership.
This will not be the end of this matter. Jess Phillips has spent considerable time complaining about threats to MPs. However, she has herself publicly promoted false allegations that she should know would cause threats to be made against me. In fact, Declan Canning was convicted in court for making death threats against me. I welcome the election of Sir Lindsay Hoyle as the new Speaker of the House of Commons and I welcome his desires to see a country in which there are fewer threats made against elected officials.
Comments
Thankyou
Lynne Hughes