Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Jack Monroe sues Katie Hopkins for vandalism accusation tweet

Hopkins admitted directing her tweet at the wrong person

Olivia Blair
Monday 18 January 2016 13:05 EST
Katie Hopkins
Katie Hopkins (Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The journalist Jack Monroe has reportedly taken legal action against Katie Hopkins after she allegedly linked Monroe to the vandalisation of a war memorial on Twitter.

According to the Press Gazette, the libel lawsuit dates back to May, 2015 when the New Statesman contributing editor Laurie Penny shared an image of the women of World War Two memorial in central London with the graffiti message “F*** Tory Scum” emblazoned across it.

Ms Penny shared it, writing: “I don’t have a problem with this. The bravery of past generations does not oblige us to be cowed today.”

In what appears to be a case of mistaken identity, Hopkins then tweeted food writer Monroe directly saying “scrawled on any memorials recently? Vandalised the memory of those who fought for your freedom. Grandma got any more medals?”

The tweet has since been deleted, but was shared by Monroe at the time.

Monroe responded saying “I have NEVER ‘scrawled on a memorial’. Brother in the RAF. Dad was a Para in the Falklands. You’re a piece of s***.”

Monroe asked Daily Mail columnist Hopkins, who was writing for The Sun at the time, to remove the tweet and threatened to sue if she didn’t. In light of her infamous Sun column where she compared migrants to "cockroaches", Monroe asked her to donate £5,000 to a refugee rescue charity as well as making a public apology, the latter of which she did not do, although she did admit to getting Monroe and Ms Penny confused, before insulting both writers again.

According to the Guardian, whom Monroe writes for, Monroe confirmed the legal action but made no further comment.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in