Rachel Riley has instructed a high-profile lawyer to pursue claims against a member of Jeremy Corbyn's staff who wrote that the Jewish Countdown presenter had claimed: “Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi.”
The JC understands that Ms Riley has instructed Mark Lewis, who came to prominence representing the victims of phone hacking, to pursue a claim against Laura Murray, whose job title is “stakeholder manager to the Leader of the Opposition”.
On Sunday, after Jeremy Corbyn was allegedly assaulted by someone who reportedly broke an egg over his head, Ms Murray tweeted: “Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for visit my mosque day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer.
“Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi.
“This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.”
She was referring to a tweet Ms Riley posted on Sunday quoting leftwing journalist and activist Owen Jones, who had tweeted in January after a neo-Nazi had an egg thrown at him.
Mr Jones, a columnist for the Guardian, had tweeted: “I think sound life advice is, if you don’t want eggs thrown at you, don’t be a Nazi. Seems fair to me.”
Ms Riley described it as “good advice”.
Good advice. 🌹🥚 pic.twitter.com/oqr0UNFrxU
— Rachel Riley (@RachelRileyRR) March 3, 2019
On Monday, Ms Riley called Ms Murray’s tweet about her an “appalling distortion of the truth.”
Thank you to all the people who checked the facts of this to call out this appalling distortion of the truth.
— Rachel Riley (@RachelRileyRR) March 4, 2019
To those calling for my arrest, urgh. 🤦🏼♀️🙄 https://t.co/WdWfUij7j0
She added: “My tweet was pointing out the hypocrisy of those on the left, who rightly identify right-wing thugs as just that, whereas the mirror on the left are excused as ‘activists’.”
She accused Ms Murray of “libelling" her.
Nice getting to know who’s libelling you better. Laura Murray “Stakeholder manager to Leader of the Opposition at Labour Party”. Lovely. https://t.co/11cMoNCIIZ
— Rachel Riley (@RachelRileyRR) March 4, 2019
Mr Lewis represented the family of Milly Dowler in their phone hacking case against News of the World, and Jack Monroe, the food writer and journalist, in a successful libel suit against far-right media figure Katie Hopkins.
Two weeks ago, Ms Riley and Tracy-Ann Oberman, a well-known Jewish actress, hired Mr Lewis to take legal action against up to 70 people they believe either posted libellous claims about them or sent them abusive messages.
Ms Murray is the daughter of Andrew Murray, an adviser to Mr Corbyn. He joined Labour in 2016 after 40 years in various iterations of the Communist Party.
Ms Murray has now deleted her account from Twitter.
Labour told the JC it would not comment on staffing matters.
