Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, has agreed to pay damages and costs to Kate Sang after suggesting that the new member of Research England’s Expert Advisory Group on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion had expressed sympathy for Hamas.
Following a tweet by Sang which the minister initially suggested indicated her “sympathy and support for Hamas,” and further concerns about advisory group colleague Kamna Patel, the minister made the extraordinary move of writing a public letter to UKRI in which she called for the research funder to “immediately close this group and undertake an urgent investigation into how this happened.”
The minister’s tweet, which has now been deleted, drew heavily on a Policy Exchange policy note which Bindmans solicitors, who represented Sang in the libel action and supported both Sang and Patel in their UKRI investigation, noted:
Unfortunately, the basis for Michelle Donelan’s false allegations was a seriously misleading press release from the lobby group Policy Exchange which did not include the link to the Guardian article tweeted by Professor Sang, just the headline which referred to a crackdown on Hamas support by Suella Braverman.
