Watch: Donelan apologises for tweeting defamatory letter

Michelle Donelan has been no stranger to the spotlight lately. The Science and Technology Secretary was forced last week to retract the false accusations she made about an academic and pay the damages and costs. But she didn’t just fire off a letter of complaint to UK Research and Innovation about its board members. Donelan also decided it would be, er, wise to publicly post the offending letter on Twitter, which itself prompted the libel action.

Donelan has this morning admitted that she ‘could have sent the letter in confidence’, telling the Lords’ science and tech committee: ‘I do apologise for not having done so’. 

In her first appearance since last week’s media frenzy, Donelan told the peers:

For clarification, last week I publicly withdrew all of my concerns and without admitting liability, £15,000 was paid to settle the case and save any costs associated with a protracted legal dispute, which would have been significant, even if of course the department had won that case.