Disgraced Labour Cllr Jack Deakin facing Legal Action after ‘libellous’ tweet
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Disgraced Labour Cllr Jack Deakin facing Legal Action after ‘libellous’ tweet
Cllr Jack Deakin has been in the spotlight several times in recent weeks, but now he may be facing legal proceedings.
Jack Deakin , Labour Councillor for the Allens Cross Ward in Birmingham is facing a potential legal battle from four Green Party Councillors who claim he has committed libel against them.
The four Green Councillors in question (Ekua Bayunu, Jo Bird, Kevin Frea and Heather Skibsted) all chose to defect from the Labour party in recent months as they believe that the Party is “increasingly centralised, authoritarian [and] dysfunctional” as reported on Bright Green.
In response to their defections, Councillor Deakin commented on Twitter, “The Green Party – proud to host your antisemites for you“.
The Green Councillors have now started a crowdfunding campaign to raise the money required to commence legal proceedings against Cllr Deakin for libel.
Writing on their crowdjustice.com page, they said,
“We have learned from many people’s bitter experience, that to take no effective challenge to smears increases the risk of further libel and damage - no matter how vexatious or evidence-free the allegations are.
Such allegations undermine all forms of anti-racism and could be damaging for many elected Green Party representatives and members.
We want to nip this in the bud and send a clear message to everyone that Anti-semitism is a serious form of racism and casually throwing around unfounded allegations undermines the real struggles by Jewish people and their allies to fight real cases of antisemitism.”
The Green Councillors say they have ‘exhausted’ alternatives to legal action, having approached Cllr Deakin to request that he delete his tweet an issue an apology. They say that he has ‘refused to apologise’ and highlight that the tweet is still ‘live’.
A Code of Conduct complaint has also been submitted to Birmingham City Council, however there is no mention of North Warwickshire Borough Council where Jack Deakin is also a Councillor representing Coleshill North.
The Green Councillors go on to say on their crowd funding page: “we have now sought legal advice and have been informed that our claim has reasonable prospects of succeeding.”
Calling supporters to action, they added “we now need to commence the legal action, pre-action stage, which we need your assistance with.”
One of the Councillors has also confirmed that they are in fact Jewish themselves. It is little wonder they have taken umbrage to Deakin’s ‘antisemite’ slur.
Deakin has found himself in further hot water this week after the Huffington Post reported that he was caught stealing a light fixture from a city-centre pub on a drunken night out.
With a potential lawsuit incoming, Deakin will be lucky to get off so lightly this time.
The Crowd Justice page can be found here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/proud-2-host-support-for-libel/
Disgraced Labour Cllr Jack Deakin facing Legal Action after ‘libellous’ tweet
Here's more genuine antisemitism (unpunished). This time it was directly targeted at Jo Bird as a Wirral Labour Councillor. By Tories and independents. It was not reported as antisemitism by mainstream media. https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/03/07/for-the-record-%e3%80%8b%e3%80%8b%e3%80%8bthe-precise-moment-when-targeted-antisemitism-broke-out-at-wirral-council/
This individual’s behaviour has been lamentable. It is appalling that the local Labour administration has not taken action against him. By not doing so the Labour administration has smeared itself with the detritus of his behaviour. The people of Allens Cross deserve better.