Clarifications

Jerry Hague

 Following the publication of The Fraud, Jerry Hague contacted myself and my publishers, OR Books.

 Jerry was concerned at the way in which The Fraud addressed his selection as the Labour Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for the Bolsover constituency in December 2022 and his standing down as the candidate approximately two weeks subsequent to his selection.

Jerry was concerned that The Fraud had cast him as “right-wing” and that a negative inference might be drawn as to his suitability to be a candidate and the reasons behind his standing down.

Jerry is of the view that the circumstances leading to his standing down were unfair and orchestrated by parties hostile to his selection. Having reviewed the existent materials, I am sympathetic to his version of events but have not yet been able to independently verify this allegation.

 I have had a chance to speak at length to Jerry and I have also reviewed thedocuments pertaining to his standing down as a Labour Party candidate.

 In the interests of clarity, the following is noted: -

  1.  Jerry ran as candidate for the constituency of Bolsover, and was fairly selected by a majority vote by Labour Party members in the Bolsover CLP in December 2022.

  2. Jerry’s standing down as a candidate followed an article in The Times which reported that Jerry had been fined £5,000 by the Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal in 2010 relating to work that Graysons, the solicitors’ firm at which Jerry worked at the time, had performed in relation to miners’ compensation claims. The Times article made serious allegations against Jerry relating to the handling of these claims. The Times reporting implied that Jerry had acted unethically and that his conduct was linked to controversial cases.

  3. As a direct consequence of publication of The Times article, Jerry was given no alternative by the Labour Party but to resign from his candidacy the same day as publication (see SIOC below).

  4. Jerry took legal action and in November 2023 won a libel action against The Times. The Times issued an Apology in which they accepted that allegations in the article were false. The full Times Apology is here. The parties also agreed a Statement in Open Court (SIOC) which may be downloaded here.  

With the agreement of Jerry, and until such time as I have more fully investigated the matter, I have decided to delete reference to him in future Ebook editions and print runs of The Fraud.

I hope to return to his case in due course.