A UK cabinet minister has apologised and agreed to pay libel damages and costs to a member of Research England’s equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) advisory group after falsely accusing her of backing Hamas.
Science secretary Michelle Donelan withdrew the allegation, made in a letter last October to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) urging an investigation into Kate Sang, professor of gender and employment studies at Herriot-Watt University. The letter was published on Donelan’s widely read X account. The undisclosed damages and costs are understood to come from public funds.
Sang had posted a Guardian article on X (formerly Twitter), headlined “Suella Braverman urges police to crack down on Hamas support in UK,” commenting, “This is disturbing.” In the letter to UKRI Donelan expressed “disgust and outrage,” arguing that the tweet had broken the Nolan principles, the rules for serving in public office.
But after an investigation, UKRI said it had found no evidence of support for a proscribed terrorist organisation.
In a post to her X account, Donelan said she now accepted that Sang’s tweet had referred to the Guardian article as a whole and not just the headline. The article detailed the wider aftermath in the UK of the Hamas attack on Israel.1
Donelan added, “I am grateful for Professor Sang’s clarification, and I am pleased to be able to withdraw my original concerns in relation to this specific tweet.
“I will make this clear to UKRI which has also now concluded that there is no evidence of any breach of the Nolan principles or failings in the appointment process to the EDI board.
“I fully accept that she is not an extremist, or a supporter of Hamas or any other proscribed organisation, and I note that an independent investigation has concluded that there is no evidence that she is. I have deleted my original post to my X account.”
Donelan’s letter to UKRI also accused another EDI member, Kamna Patel, associate professor of development studies at University College London, of sharing extremist material. In the case of both academics, UKRI concluded after the investigation that they had not expressed extremist views or supported a proscribed organisation and that there had been no breach of the rules of appointment to the EDI board or of the Nolan principles.
Sang said in a statement, “I am delighted that this matter has now concluded, but very disturbed by the way in which Michelle Donelan and UKRI behaved. Had they asked me at the start, I would have explained the true position. Instead, Michelle Donelan made a cheap political point at my expense and caused serious damage to my reputation. I propose to donate part of the damages she has paid to a charity.”
Patel said, “There was never any need for UKRI to investigate as it should have been obvious from the start that we had not breached the Nolan principles or expressed extremist views. Worryingly, it appears UKRI were steered by who made the claim and not its substance. It has been a distressing series of events and I am glad that it has concluded with no finding against us.”
