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An ex-Labour councillor says he felt humbled after a crowdfunder campaign backed by TV presenter Rachel Riley helped him recover £20,000 costs defending a failed libel lawsuit.
Josh Jones, a former shadow deputy leader at Dartford council, was taken to court by expelled party activist Tony Greenstein who claimed he had been slandered as a “Holocaust denier”.
The alleged remarks were said to have taken place during a local Labour branch meeting in April 2018 where Mr Jones was supporting a motion that the Jewish Labour Movement be invited to provide anti-semitism training.
But the High Court struck out the claim in December 2019, ruling it had "no reasonable grounds" and awarded £20,000 costs to Mr Jones.
However, it was the ex-councillor that was left to foot the bill when Mr Greenstein claimed he was on benefits and unable to pay.
The 32-year-old stumped up around £10,000 of his own savings defending the lawsuit but still owed another £10,000.
With the encouragement of friends, Mr Jones reluctantly set up a crowdfunder to recover some costs.
Mr Jones said: "I got £9,000 within three hours and closed it but got messages saying you should not have been out of pocket so I reopened it.
"There were hundreds of individual donations and people who sent messages to support me."
Mr Jones said he was truly "overwhelmed" by the messages on social media from Jewish celebrities and anti-semitism campaigners including actress Tracey-Ann Oberman and TV presenter Rachel Riley.
The countdown star tweeted: "Very glad to see by the time of reading this that Josh has more than doubled his target."
His fundraiser has since been closed after the ex-councillor recovered the full £20,000 fees.
But the Mr Jones, who until May 2018 was shadow deputy leader of Dartford council, says the looming legal fees had impacted on his mental health.
"From the outset I made it clear to him that I had not said anything defamatory of him," he said.
"I have had to take time off work with medication for depression. It took an incredible toll on me. Being a councillor and having a full-time job was stressful enough.
He added: "It was unbelievable pressure really and it got worse and worse."
But Mr Greenstein, who was not present at the meeting where the alleged remarks were made, said the former councillor "had brought it on himself" and his crowdfunder was an "exercise in deception".
He said: "He won proceedings simply on a technical legal point.
"The court itself never determined whether or not he did say it."
The anti-zionist activist added there were independent witness statements supporting this, but claimed the minutes of the meeting were contested along "political factions".
Mr Jones, who now works and lives in London, says he never made the remarks and is looking forward to getting his life back after recovering his fees.
He said: "I'm not constantly thinking about money and I can get my savings back again.
"The fact is I'm now at a stage where I don't have any legal bills to pay for the first time in about four years so that feels really really amazing."
