A Conservative councillor has agreed to pay “substantial” damages to Jeremy Corbyn after tweeting a false image purporting to show the former Labour leader mourning the terrorist who committed the Liverpool Women’s hospital attack last week.
Paul Nickerson resigned from East Riding council’s Conservative group on Tuesday after admitting sending the defamatory tweet on 15 November.
He posted an apology on his Twitter account, saying he would also pay Corbyn’s legal costs.
Commenting on the swift settlement of his legal case, Corbyn said: “The bomb attack on Liverpool Women’s hospital on Remembrance Sunday was a horrific crime, which could have killed or maimed countless victims, including new mothers and their babies.
“Councillor Paul Nickerson’s Photoshopped Twitter post about me failed to understand the seriousness of the threat and did a disservice to all those affected by the attack and their loved ones.”
Corbyn said he would donate the “substantial settlement” to charities close to his heart, including one in Liverpool and one in his Islington North constituency.
Nickerson at first denied responsibility and said he was hacked – something he says now was “a kneejerk reaction which further let people down and only made the problem worse”.
In a Facebook statement, he said he had demonstrated a “terrible lack of judgment” and “let down my own wife, children and the people of Beverley that I am supposed to represent”.
He said he would now sit as an independent councillor, having resigned from the Conservative group at East Riding council after his initial suspension.
“As well as financial recompense to Mr Corbyn, I have also promised to spend the next year raising £10,000 for youth charities in Beverley including the boxing club so something more positive might eventually come out of this,” he added.
Nickerson’s apology said: “On 15 November 2021 a defamatory tweet, for which I accept full responsibility, was published on my Twitter account. The tweet targeted Jeremy Corbyn and included a fake photograph of him laying a poppy wreath at the site of a burning taxi outside the Liverpool Women’s hospital where a terror attack had taken place on Remembrance Sunday killing a suicide bomber and injuring others.
“The false photograph, captioned by the word ‘unsurprisingly’, gave the completely untrue impression that Jeremy Corbyn supports terrorist violence including suicide bombings, which without any hesitation I wholly accept he does not. Without reservation I fully withdraw any suggestion or inference that Jeremy Corbyn is a supporter of terrorist violence.”
