Conservative Party Vice Chair Ben Bradley has apologised unreservedly for a libellous tweet about Jeremy Corbyn, pledged to never repeat the claims in any form, agreed to make a substantial donation to charities of the Labour Leader’s choosing and meet his legal costs.
Jeremy will be splitting the funds between a homeless charity and a foodbank in Mr Bradley’s constituency of Mansfield.
Mr Bradley’s apology, which he will also tweet and ask followers to retweet, says:
“On 19 February 2018 I made a seriously defamatory statement on my Twitter account, ‘Ben Bradley MP (@bbradleymp)’, about Jeremy Corbyn, alleging he sold British secrets to communist spies. I have since deleted the defamatory tweet. I have agreed to pay an undisclosed substantial sum of money to a charity of his choice, and I will also pay his legal costs.
“I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue and false. I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies.
“I am very sorry for publishing this untrue and false statement and I have no hesitation in offering my unreserved and unconditional apology to Jeremy Corbyn for the distress I have caused him.”�
A spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn said:
“We are pleased Ben Bradley has admitted what he said was entirely untrue and apologised, and that charities in Mansfield will benefit.
“Following the botched smear campaign against Jeremy, this case shows we are not going to let dangerous lies go unchallenged.”�
ENDS
Notes to editor:
Ben Bradley has agreed to pay the donations by 4pm Friday 3 March
What a load of nonsense...I have no control over what files the FBI, the CIA, the IRA, the STASI , BT, British Rail, the credit bureausetc etchave on me( if any.)So callng on an individual to release the files that a third partyhave is just hot air and misinformation .
One of the very positive reasons why countries post ambassadors and have embassies abroad is to get a feeling of the pulse of another country. How many wars have occurred because of misinterpreted information. ?
None.
A few wars have started by deliberately misinterpreting information.
Heard on the news that some Tory MP scoundrelwho is also the vice chair of the Tory partymade up the story of selling secrets in a tweet . He has apologised, paid a sum to charity and paid Corbyn's legal fees.
This guy should be banned from the chamber or asked to resign.
It's all just a big nasty conspiracy by powerful dark forces hell bent on destroying Corbyn because they're afraid of the ultimate truth. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
see post#72 Corbyn under pressure to be open about Iron Curtain spy contacts
It is actually turning out quite well for Corbyn and his people. Without evenaddressing the issue of how many meetings and perhaps putting our our minds at rest by saying nothing happened, he has divertedattention to some MP who have made silly claims.
So the headlines are about apologies, so now supporters can conclude it was all made up.
Well played team Corbyn data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Just goes to show that sitting back and saying or doing nothing is a strategy in itself.
Agreed, but lets not forget that the apology was about a tweet regarding SELLING and nothing else. The journalists behaved themselves and didn't make stuff up, the evidence was provided.
One could be slightly naughty and suggest that it is even worse when Corbyn wasn't even doing it for personal gain, but gladly did it out of free will and with no gain to himself. It could be seen as doing it out of conviction data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
That's true, it would tie in with Jeremy's mantle of integrity.
Doing what though? What secret or confidential or even useful information passed hands?
I think it is fairly safe to assume Soviet files are kept on anyone of interest, especially Westminster PMs who are hard left and could possibly be 'turned'.
Who knows, Jeremy might be keeping quiet because he was helping our own security people in passing tainted information data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
It's all guesswork (at the moment).