DALE VINCE'S libel claim against the publisher of the Daily Mail has been thrown out by a High Court judge.

Mr Vince sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over an article which he claimed falsely suggested he was the subject of harassment allegations.

The article, printed in June last year, was headlined “Labour repays £100,000 to ‘sex harassment’ donor” and reported that the Labour Party was handing back money to donor Davide Serra, while also referencing fellow donor Mr Vince.

An employment tribunal in 2022 heard Mr Serra had made sexist comments to a female colleague which were found to amount to unlawful harassment related to sex.

A hearing in London in February was told that Mr Vince was “seriously defamed” by the article’s headline, image and captions, as they made readers think he was the subject of the allegations.

But lawyers for ANL opposed the claim, telling the hearing that it would be clear to people reading the whole article that Mr Vince was not the donor being referred to in the headline.

In a ruling on Monday, Judge Jaron Lewis struck out Mr Vince’s claim, stating that it was “not potentially viable” and “bound to fail”.

He said: “There is a contradiction in the claimant’s case. The claimant accepts that the headline and photograph do not accurately summarise the article, although his pleaded case on ‘extrinsic facts’ is that they always do.”

He continued: “At its highest, it could be said that some readers will have believed that headlines always accurately summarise the underlying article, but this is no more than an opinion, and is insufficient to support an innuendo meaning.”

He added: “The claim is not potentially viable, and there is no basis for exercising discretion in the claimant’s favour.”