It's Harborne v Habib in the court libel battle of the year

When Ben Habib, Reform’s former deputy leader, claimed earlier this year that Thai-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne had paid Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson £1 million each to essentially rig the 2019 general election in the latter’s favour, he essentially dared the businessman to sue him.

Perhaps Habib, one of many senior Reformers to have long fallen out with Farage, should have been careful what he wished for – Harborne has now begun an action for defamation against him.

In May, Habib, who founded the short-lived Advance UK after splitting from Reform, gave an interview to Paul Thorpe, a watch-dealer turned right wing YouTuber, in which he claimed that “the 2019 general election was sewn up between Nigel Farage, Christopher Harborne and Boris Johnson, and it was a monetary deal”. In November 2019 Farage’s Brexit Party ditched plans to take on the Tories in more than 300 seats, after what he said was Johnson’s “shift of position” on Brexit.

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Habib then added of Harborne “he can sue me, if he thinks that I’m lying”. Harborne is the man whose £5m “unconditional gift” to Farage sparked the controversy this year which plunged Reform into crisis and ultimately saw the party leader fleetingly resign his Clacton seat to fight a pointless and expensive by-election against a man with a bin on his head.

Now particulars of claim – a formal legal document setting out the detailed facts, legal basis, and remedy sought in a civil court case – have been laid before the High Court of Justice by Harborne’s lawyers, Schillings. The document quotes Habib’s comments to Thorpe at length and claims them to be defamatory.