Katie Hopkins' attempt to shame barrister on Twitter for having an Etonian father backfires

Katie Hopkins’ latest attempt to publicly shame someone on Twitter has backfired after the barrister she attacked for having an Etonian father explained he was adopted and described how he has “known poverty, and what it means”.

Jolyon Maugham QC, a barrister and director of the Good Law Project, wrote a tweet discussing the significance of the European single market and the customs union in relation to the UK’s economy on Monday, which Ms Hopkins responded to by commenting on his name and his family history.

“Let’s be clear. Staying in the Single Market and Customs Union are key steps in avoiding an economic breakdown that could deliver fascism,” Mr Maugham wrote on Twitter.

Ms Hopkins, who was dropped as a presenter on LBC for a Twitter comment following the Manchester terrorist attack, replied: “Let’s be clear. You are called Jolyon, son of Eton-educated Benedictus. You could not be further from the will of 17 million people, love.”

Mr Maugham, who writes for a number of British publications about tax and policy, has been open about his adoption and estrangement from his father, the author David Benedictus.

The QC explains on his website that he was born in the UK before moving to New Zealand with his single mother at the age of one, where he was adopted. He was forced to start supporting himself at the age of 16 as a cleaner and a year later travelled to England, “initially living with an old family friend in a pit village in the North East where my grandfather’s family lived”.

Mr Maugham states he feels “keenly the need for more voices in public debate who have experienced poverty, who do not come from privileged backgrounds, and who view public policy as it impacts on people’s real lives”.

Responding to Ms Hopkins’ tweet over several posts, the barrister explained that he did not know his father’s identity for several years due to his adoption, and claims the author denied paternity.

“David Benedictus is my biological father, and did go to Eton. There’s no mystery about this: it’s in his Who’s Who entry,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I did not meet him – or even know if his existence – until I was 17. I was raised not knowing I was adopted.

“I was brought up by my mother, the daughter of an electrician, and her husband, the son of a plumber, in New Zealand.

“David met my mother when she was 19 and studying – the first in my family to be educated beyond school – at North London Polytechnic.

“They Knew but barely knew each other. As was then the Etonian way he, through his lawyers, denied paternity and paid my mother £5 per week.

“My mother and her later husband met at Teachers College in New Zealand and brought me up until I was 16 then kicked me out.

“I worked as a cleaner of the girls’ secondary school whilst still at the co-ed secondary school to support myself.

“I struggled for money. I could afford only to board with older men, two in succession. Neither’s interest in me was purely financial.

“So I have known poverty, and what it means. Katie Hopkins’ ill-informed attack on me is what I would expect from her and the Far Right.”

Ms Hopkins responded to Mr Maugham's comments by saying "Your life is of no consequence to me, son. Nor your thoughts. I stand with the 17 million".