Guardian’s Cadwalladr in court to fight defamation claim by Brexit backer Banks

Award-winning journalist says comments about businessman were in the public interest

The Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr will appear in court in London next Friday to defend herself against an accusation of defamation brought by Arron Banks, the multi-millionaire businessman and outspoken backer of Brexit. The case concerns a remark made in a talk at the Ted technology conference by Cadwalladr in April 2019, and a related tweet.

In the widely viewed 15-minute talk about the pernicious effects of Facebook on the democratic electoral process, Cadwalladr spoke about the 2016 Brexit referendum and noted briefly that Nigel Farage's Leave.EU campaign, largely funded by 8m from Banks, the largest donation in British political history, had been found by the Electoral Commission to have broken electoral and data laws.