The notion that levelling baseless allegations at private individuals on social media could form part of any ministerial brief is a novel one. Yet that appears to be the implication of the use of public funds to settle a libel case on behalf of the science minister, Michelle Donelan.
On Tuesday, Ms Donelan published a retraction of claims that Prof Kate Sang, a senior academic, had expressed support for Hamas on X, after she tweeted that the contents of a Guardian article published in the aftermath of 7 October were “disturbing”. The unfounded allegation was made by Ms Donelan the same month, in an open letter to UK Research and Innovation, a national research funding body. Posting the content on X, she called for Prof Sang and another academic to be removed from roles on an equality, diversity and inclusion committee, on the grounds of alleged extremism and support for a proscribed organisation.
