Conservatives take legal action against The Times
The Conservative Party has launched legal action against The Times newspaper.
It accuses the paper of defaming campaign director Lynton Crosby.
The libel writ at the High Court comes in response to an article carried by the paper that alleged that the party’s campaign director had privately told Michael Howard he had no chance of winning the next general election.
The paper claimed the Australian polling guru had told Mr Howard he should concentrate on increasing the number of seats the Tories hold by between 25 and 30.
The allegation was vehemently denied by the party and Mr Crosby. At the time Mr Crosby said there was “absolutely no truth” in rumours.
A letter published the next day in The Times, from Conservative co-chair Lord Saatchi and Mr Crosby, said: “Anyone who knows either of us and what we have achieved in our careers should know that ‘second place’ does not enter our vocabulary.
“We are in the business of winning an overall majority at the general election and we believe that this objective is achievable.”
The decision by the party to sue for libel follows a failed attempt to get the paper to apologise or retract the original story.
A spokesperson for the party said: “The Times ran a story suggesting that we could not win the next general election, which is completely untrue and to which they failed to offer us any chance to respond.
“We gave them every opportunity to withdraw the story and apologise, which they also failed to do. This is why we are taking this action.”
It is seeking aggravated damages from the Times and a number of named reporters.
The Times is yet to issue any response.
