'Shocked and hurt': Colleague of professor targeted by Michelle Donelan speaks of his anger

A colleague of the professor who minister Michelle Donelan falsely accused of being a Hamas sympathiser says he felt attacked by the MP.

The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology falsely accused Professor Kate Sang of sharing "extremist views", eventually leading to a £15,000 bill for damages - which taxpayers had to foot.

Professor Dibyesh Anand was included, alongside Prof Sang, in a piece by think tank Policy Exchange, which put out what lawyers have called a “seriously misleading press release” about the academics’ comments.

This piece is believed to have led to Ms Donelan saying Prof Sang was a Hamas sympathiser.

He told ITV News of his anger when he saw Ms Donelan speaking on the news about the UKRI.

"I was shocked and angry the way she was talking about it," Prof Anand said. "To get attacked, quite personally, not just by someone junior but by a minister was quite hurtful."

Prof Anand added the "attack was ideological" and done without "serious questioning" of his and his colleague's work.

"It was disappointing to see the way the minister was willing to put the reputation of the UKRI at risk without care for any one of us, by publicly attacking us," he said.

He added that as a taxpayer himself, he was very upset that taxpayers had to foot the bill for Ms Donelan's comments.

Prof Anand and Prof Sang are part of an advisory group on equality, diversity and inclusion at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) - a public body which manages the government's research funding.

Prof Anand clarified that he spoke to ITV News as an individual, not as a representative for the group as a whole.

It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stood by Ms Donelan, insisting it was a "longstanding convention that the government funds legal disputes when it relates to ministers doing their work."

Mr Sunak said he had been "focused on the Budget", but stuck by the science minister despite Ms Donelan facing calls to resign and to pay the cost of the settling the libel action herself.

Ms Donelan tweeted a letter she had written to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) last October, in which she expressed “disgust and outrage” that Prof Sang and another academic, Dr Kamna Patel, had “shared extremist views”.

The letter followed a tweet by Prof Sang saying “this is disturbing”, and containing a link to a Guardian article describing the response to the Hamas attacks in the UK.

As a result of Ms Donelan’s letter, both Prof Sang and Dr Patel were subject to a probe by UKRI, which uncovered no evidence that they had expressed extremist views or support for Hamas, or breached the terms of their appointments.

The prime minister's spokesperson also confirmed on Thursday that Ms Donelan received government legal advice before publishing the false claims, but wouldn't say whether she had followed that advice or not.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said it was "totally insulting" that taxpayers were having to foot the bill, and that if he was in power he would "never allow that sort of thing to happen".

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt also backed Ms Donelan in the Commons on Thursday, insisting the Science Secretary values public money following the revelation that public cash was used to pay damages on her behalf.

Ms Mordaunt claimed she was of good character because she returned a redundancy payment from her brief time as education secretary in the final days of Boris Johnson’s premiership.

A government spokesperson said: “There is an established precedent under multiple administrations that Ministers are provided with legal support and representation where matters relate to their conduct and responsibilities as a Minister, as was the case here.

“The Secretary of State received the appropriate advice from relevant officials at all times.

“A sum of £15,000 was paid without admitting any liability. This approach is intended to reduce the overall costs to the taxpayer that could result from protracted legal action, no matter what the result would have been.”

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