LOCAL MP, Michelle Donelan, has defended her actions after she hit headlines this week as it emerged that damages were paid to an academic she believed had expressed extremist sympathies.
The MP said that she had taken legal advice from her department and government lawyers prior to making the claims.
The MP wrote a letter, which was posted on social media in October last year, criticising professor Kate Sang’s views on Hamas. Prof Sang was suspended by the UK Research and Innovation board (UKRI), which Ms Donelan oversees in her role as a Minister, but was cleared after an investigation found no evidence of any extremist sympathies. Prof Sang was paid £15,000 from government funds to settle a libel action she was pursuing.
But Ms Donelan, speaking with Melksham News, has said she went through all the proper steps to get the letter she wrote cleared by government legal departments before sending it to the UKRI. She said a settlement was agreed with Prof Sang to avoid further legal costs to the taxpayer if the dispute went to court.
She said, “I am pleased this matter is now settled because a protracted dispute would have incurred significant legal costs for the taxpayer, which I always wanted to avoid.”
There have been calls for the MP to resign and public inquiry into the use of taxpayers’ money.
Dr. Brian Mathew, the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the Melksham and Devizes constituency said, “There should now be a Cabinet Office inquiry to find out exactly what happened and how much public money was spent. These things should be in the open and not covered up.
“We want to know why a Cabinet Minister made a cheap political point on Twitter based on a press release she had not checked out. Frankly, I thought Michelle Donelan was above this kind of thing. Now the taxpayer is paying the price.”
Malcolm Cupis, the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Reform UK party, criticised the use of taxpayers’ money but stated that he does not believe the MP should resign. He said, “I think those demanding that Michelle Donelan resign from her job are participating in something quite sinister that we need to remove from politics and wider society.
“The idea that you can be cancelled for speaking freely, even if what you say is incorrect, hurtful and frankly stupid. We should all be free to express ourselves, so long as we take responsibility for what we say.”
