UK science minister apologises and pays damages after academic’s libel action

Michelle Donelan, the science minister, has apologised and paid damages after accusing two academics of “sharing extremist views” and one of them of supporting Hamas.

In a statement posted on X, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology said she had deleted a tweet and letter published last year, and accepted what she termed a “clarification” from one of the academics, Prof Kate Sang at Heriot-Watt university in Edinburgh.

Sang launched a libel action against Donelan after the minister published a letter to the UK Research Institute (UKRI) which urged it to cut links with Sang and another academic, Dr Kamna Patel of University College London. Donelan had described her “disgust and outrage” at their appointment to an expert advisory group to Research England on equality, diversity and inclusion.

UKRI is the umbrella agency responsible for channelling £3bn in higher education research funding, including to Research England. The institute suspended Sang and Patel while it carried out an investigation into Donelan’s allegations, which appear to have been triggered by a report by Policy Exchange.

In a statement, Sang said: “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.”

Donelan’s complaint included Sang’s retweeting of a Guardian article from last October headlined “Suella Braverman urges police to crack down on Hamas support in UK”, to which Sang added the comment: “This is disturbing.”

Donelan’s statement said: “I am grateful for Professor Sang’s clarification, and I am pleased to withdraw my original concerns in relation to this specific tweet.”

She added: “As I said to the media at the time, and I want to reiterate now: I have never thought or claimed that Professor Sang, or any member of the board [of Research England’s expert advisory group], committed a criminal offence. I fully accept that she is not an extremist, a supporter of Hamas or any other proscribed organisation and I note that an independent investigation has concluded that there was no evidence that she is. I have deleted my original post to my X accounts.”

Donelan’s department said that it had paid the damages and legal costs when asked who had done so, adding: “This was subject to all the usual cross-government processes and aims to reduce the overall costs to the taxpayer that could result from protracted legal action.”

A No 10 source said Rishi Sunak had full confidence in Donelan, calling her “an excellent minister”.

Peter Kyle, the shadow science secretary, said: “The secretary must prove she still has the confidence of the research community after using her department to make false allegations against academics.”

He said accusing a researcher of sharing extremist material and sympathising with a proscribed group was a “new low in government standards”.

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Tamsin Allen, who represented Sang in her libel complaint, said: “Michelle Donelan has now withdrawn her false allegations and agreed to pay damages and costs to Professor Sang. It is extraordinary that a minister should be guided by a lobby group into making serious false allegations about private citizens without doing the first piece of due diligence.”

On Tuesday UKRI’s board announced that its investigation “found no evidence in the public domain of support for a proscribed terrorist organisation or the sharing of extremist material and no grounds to remove any individual members of the Research England expert advisory group”.

UKRI also said it had found no evidence of a breach in the expert advisory group’s terms of reference, and no failure to uphold the seven “Nolan” principles of public life.

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.”

Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “This investigation completely exonerates our members and confirms Michelle Donelan’s unprecedented, politicised intervention was an outrageous attack on academic freedom.”

Ottoline Leyser, UKRI’s chief executive, said: “Our intention, as soon as these concerns were raised by the secretary of state, was to adopt a well-governed process to support evidenced, principled decisions.

“I am grateful for the thorough work of all those involved in this investigation. I hope this will bring clear resolution in a way that best supports all of those who serve on our advisory groups, and research and innovation in the UK.”