Laurence Fox told to pay £180,000 in libel damages

Laurence Fox has been ordered to pay £90,000 in damages each to two people he referred to as "paedophiles".

The actor-turned-politician lost a High Court case with former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal.

The remarks on X, formerly Twitter, came in an exchange about Sainsbury's marking Black History Month.

Mrs Justice Collins Rice said the comments were "gross, groundless and indefensible".

Reclaim Party founder Mr Fox - who said at the time that he would boycott Sainsbury's - counter-sued the pair and broadcaster Nicola Thorp over tweets accusing him of racism.

In January, the judge ruled in favour of Mr Blake and former RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Crystal, whose real name is Colin Seymour, and dismissed Mr Fox's counter-claims.

On Thursday, Mrs Justice Collins Rice said in her written ruling: "By calling Mr Blake and Mr Seymour paedophiles, Mr Fox subjected them to a wholly undeserved public ordeal.

"It was a gross, groundless and indefensible libel, with distressing and harmful real-world consequences for them.

"They are entitled by law to an award of money, to compensate them for those damaging effects, and to ensure that they can put this matter behind them, vindicated and confident that no-one can sensibly doubt their blamelessness of that disgusting slur and that they were seriously wronged by it."