John Rentoul apologises and pays substantial damages to senior former Shadow Cabinet Member

John Rentoul, the Chief Political Commentator for the Independent newspaper, has agreed to pay a substantial five figure sum in libel damages and legal costs to the Labour MP for Hemsworth, and former Shadow Cabinet Minister, Jon Trickett, for a tweet he published on 7 May 2021 alleging that Mr Trickett used “a slogan implying support for murdering police officers”.

John Rentoul has today (6 August 2021) published a retraction and apology in which he states that “I accept that my tweet was wrong and I sincerely apologise for the distress and upset that my tweet has caused Mr Trickett.” Mr Rentoul has tweeted the statement here, asking his followers to “please retweet”. 

Mr Rentoul published the tweet on 7 May to his approximately 143,000 followers, quote retweeting Jon Trickett’s tweet calling on Labour to adopt a number of policies, including voicing its opposition to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill curtailing fundamental rights to peaceful protest. The Bill has been opposed by many MPs as well as civil liberties campaigners. 

Jon Trickett’s tweet included the slogan ‘Kill the Bill’, a historic protest slogan which had been widely reported as the name of the movement opposing the Bill including in The Independent. 

John Rentoul, however, quote tweeted this with the caption “a Labour MP - a *Labour* MP - who thinks it is clever to use a slogan implying support for murdering police officers”.

Jon Trickett instructed Martin Howe of Howe + Co Solicitors and Mark Henderson of Doughty Street Chambers to pursue a libel claim in response to this entirely false allegation.                                  

Following the settlement, Mr Rentoul has tweeted the following apology:

“On 7 May I published a tweet about Jon Trickett MP which described him as “A Labour MP – a Labour MP – who thinks it’s clever to use a slogan implying support for murdering police officers”. I based this on a tweet in which Mr Trickett used the ‘Kill the Bill’ slogan. I accept that Mr Trickett was not condoning violence against police officers and that he was using this phrase to reference his opposition to the Police and Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. I accept that my tweet was wrong and I sincerely apologise for the distress and upset that my tweet has caused Mr Trickett.”

Commenting on the settlement, Jon Trickett MP said: 

“The slogan ‘kill the Bill’ is used by thousands of protesters across the UK against this government’s authoritarian attempts to curtail our fundamental right to peaceful protest. To suggest that this dissent against repressive laws endorsed violence against officers was shocking and wholly unacceptable. It was for this reason that I successfully took action for defamation. I will be donating the damages to a good cause. Thanks to my excellent legal team.”