By David Young-
James Dyson, the renowned inventor, has lost his libel claim against the publisher of the Daily Mirror. The 76-year-old inventor testified at the Royal Courts of Justice over two days in a trial against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) regarding an article published in January 2022.
The article in question, written by journalist Brian Reade, referred to Dyson as “the vacuum-cleaner tycoon who championed Vote Leave due to the economic opportunities it would bring to British industry before moving his global head office to Singapore.” The piece continued with Reade stating, “Kids, talk the talk but then screw your country, and if anyone complains, tell them to suck it up.”
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Sir James Dyson(pictured) filed a libel claim against MGN, describing the allegations as a “vicious and vitriolic” personal attack. MGN is defending the claim, asserting that the article is based on honest opinion.
Justin Rushbrooke KC, representing Sir James, argued that the articles constituted a “serious and unjustified slur” on Dyson’s reputation, business, and personal life. He emphasized that an “honest opinion is supposed to give latitude but is not a license for a journalist to mislead the reader.”
In response, Adrienne Page KC, representing MGN, asserted that the words in the article were “substantially correct” and that Sir James could not dictate how the commentator framed them.
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Page added that the article “is pitched to a lay audience, against a notorious background to 2019, and he is doing it pithily.”
The case centered on whether the article’s words were substantially correct and whether they were an expression of honest opinion.
Mr Dyson told court the article was “a personal attack on all that I have done and achieved in my lifetime and is highly distressing and hurtful”.
Mr Justice Jay dismissed the claims. MGN said the judgement upheld “the right of columnists” to share opinions.
Mr Justice Jay said: “In the present case the claimant cannot demonstrate that he has suffered financial loss as a result of these publications.
“Nor can he show that his philanthropic work, particularly directed to young people and schools, has been harmed in any way.”
The article, by Brian Reade, referred to Mr Dyson as “the vacuum-cleaner tycoon who championed Vote Leave due to the economic opportunities it would bring to British industry before moving his global head office to Singapore”.
Dyson has a UK headquarters at Malmesbury in Wiltshire
Mr Reade continued: “Kids, talk the talk but then screw your country and if anyone complains, tell them to suck it up.”
During the two-day trial, Justin Rushbrooke KC, for Sir James, said in written submissions that the articles, both in print and online, “constituted a serious and unjustified slur on Sir James’s reputation, business and personal”.
However, MGN defended the claim, including by arguing that Mr Reade’s article was “honest opinion”.
Adrienne Page KC, for MGN, said the words in the article were “substantially correct” and that Sir James could not dictate how the commentator posed them.
In giving his decision on Friday, Jay said he had to consider “whether an honest commentator could think that the claimant has screwed the country, in other words has harmed it in some way, by acting as he did”.
The judge concluded: “Mr Reade was not attempting to offer a window into or shine a light on the claimant’s thought processes or motivation. He could not, and did not, claim to do that.
“Rather, the ‘screwed his country etc’ remark was Mr Reade’s ‘take’ on how people would or might envisage the claimant’s actions.”
The judge continued: “Given that Mr Reade fell short of accusing the claimant of dishonesty, the scope for honest comment, however wounding and unbalanced, was very considerable indeed.”
Following the decision, an MGN spokesperson said: “We welcome today’s judgment which upholds the rights of our columnists to share honestly held opinions, even about powerful or wealthy individuals.”
Following the verdict, a Dyson spokesperson said: “The facts are that Dyson is a highly successful global technology company which employs 3,700 people in the UK, paid more UK Corporation Tax after 2019 than before, continues to invest vast sums in the UK [and] files more patents than any other company.”
The statement added the firm “founded a university in Malmesbury which has educated hundreds of undergraduates who pay no tuition fees while earning a salary and even paying tax”.
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