Toxic SNP feud ends in £40,000 defamation award

Ms McCulloch, a dog-groomer who works for Uddingston & Bellshill MSP Richard Lyle, now faces a life-changing bill of £40,000 plus interest.

She falsely claimed Ms McAnulty referred to “Pakis” in the SNP, a comment which was later reported by the Daily Record and ended Ms McAnulty’s political career.

READ MORE: Former SNP councillor denies racism in £100,000 court case 

In a scathing judgment, Lord Uist, who heard the case over five days in April and June, said Ms McCulloch’s allegation was “outrageous” and "activated by malice and ill-will”.

He also said it was part of a campaign to damage Ms McAnulty waged by a rival faction in the Lanarkshire SNP linked to two MSPs.

He said Ms McAnulty did not make the alleged remark during a car journey in 2015 and he had no doubts about her credibility or reliability.

Ms McAnulty would have to have "taken complete leave of her senses" to say that to Ms McCulloch, he said.

He also said Ms McAnulty’s key witness, SNP councillor Steven Bonnar, had been “entirely honest and reliable” when he told the court Ms McAnulty said nothing racist in the car.

But the judge flatly rejected Ms McCulloch’s evidence, saying: “I found her to be an unforthcoming witness and formed a generally poor impression of her.”

He also noted Ms McCulloch’s previous conviction for theft in 2006 - she stole around £4600 from a building society account - showed she was “not averse to acting dishonestly”.

Ms McAnulty welcomed the judgment, and said it had "vindicated" her position.

Labour called for an investigation of the SNP's North Lanarkshire operation.

Ms McAnulty sued Ms McCulloch for £100,000 in damages, but Lord Uist said Ms McCulloch could not be held liable for her false claim appearing in the Daily Record, even though she had circulated it to a dozen people, few of whom had a clear reason to receive it.

READ MORE: Councillor suspended by SNP for alleged racism sues her accuser 

In his 28-page opinion, he said: “Nevertheless, the libel in question, which made an unfounded allegation of racism, was an outrageous one which has had a serious effect on the pursuer’s personal reputation and effectively ended her political career.

“I consider the figure of £5,000 suggested by counsel for the defender as damages to be wholly unrealistic and inadequate. I accept the submission of counsel for the pursuer that in these circumstances an award of £40,000 in name of damages would be appropriate.”

The case exposed long-running problems in the SNP’s Lanarkshire operation, with rival camps engaged in a bitter fight for dominance.

Ms McAnulty, who served as a North Lanarkshire councillor from 2012 to 2017, told the court that she and Ms McCulloch were on opposite sides of a “toxic” faction fight.

Ms McAnulty said she and then Coatbridge MP Phil Boswell and his supporters had been in one faction, and wanted to reform how the party was run locally.

She said Ms McCulloch was in a rival set alongside Mr Lyle, Coatbridge MSP Fulton MacGregor, former North Lanarkshire councillor Imtiaz Majid, and current NLC Councillor Allan Stubbs, who wanted to maintain their grip on the local party machine.

In 2015, Ms McAnulty clashed with this faction by seeking the SNP candidacy for Holyrood in Mr Lyle’s Uddingston & Bellshill seat, and also in Coatbridge & Chryston, where Mr MacGregor was hoping to be the candidate.

In early 2016, two stories appeared in the Daily Record about allegations of racism against Ms McAnulty, prompting Ms McCulloch to write a complaint to SNP HQ on 5 February 2016.

In her email, which was written in Mr Lyle’s office, Ms McCulloch claimed Ms McAnulty used the word “Pakis” while in her car on 20 June 2015, as the two women returning from a canvassing session in a council by-election.

Although Ms McCulloch marked the email as "confidential", she copied it to around a dozen people, most of whom had nothing to do with party discipline.

The email was promptly leaked to the Daily Record, which ran the front page story “‘Get the Pakis out of the party’: SNP Councillor Julie McAnulty at the centre of a second race row” on 8 February 2016.

Ms McAnulty, a music teacher and church organist, told the court it was the worst day of her life and had permanently damaged her reputation.

The story led to her immediate suspension from the SNP and she was later blocked from standing for Holyrood and deselected as an SNP council candidate.

She ultimately resigned from the SNP in 2017.

She consistently denied ever using the word “Pakis” or being racist.

Ms McCulloch, a childhood friend of Mr Lyle who has worked for him since April 2015, defended the case on the grounds of accuracy, fair comment and qualified privilege.

Much of the court evidence centred on the car journey during which Ms McAnulty was alleged to have made the remark, and whether her car had space for Mr Bonnar.

Mr Bonnar told the court he was also in the car that day, the first Saturday of his first campaign in politics, and had not heard Ms McAnulty say anything racist.

Ms McCulloch claimed the conversation must have been in May, but it later emerged that Mr Bonnar had not been a candidate until June.

Lord Uist rejected Ms McCulloch’s evidence and accepted Ms McAnulty’s on seven grounds.

He said it was “implausible and inherently unlikely” that Ms McAnulty would make the statement attributed to her, especially to Ms McCulloch, as she was in a rival faction.

He said: “She [Ms McAnulty] did not know the defender and understood that she was aligned to Richard Lyle and part of an opposing faction within the local SNP.

“She was wary of the defender, understood that she had been discussing her behind her back and had made untruthful allegations against another person.

“The alleged statement is said to have been made 12 days after Richard Lyle had blocked her nomination as a candidate... at the Scottish Parliament election.

"Counsel for the pursuer submitted that it would have required the pursuer to have taken complete leave of her senses to have made such a statement to the defender.

“I agree with that observation.”

Second, he questioned the eight month delay between Ms McCulloch hearing the alleged remark and her complaining to SNP HQ about it.

“Had the defender genuinely thought at the time of the alleged statement that the pursuer was a racist within the SNP I would have expected her to take some formal action to report the matter then. I do not accept the explanation for the delay given in her written complaint.”

Third, Ms McCulloch’s decision to copy her complaint to a list of people who were mainly “not supportive of the pursuer and did not include anyone supportive of her”.

He said: “In my judgment the complaint was circulated to these other recipients out of malice or ill-will on the part of the defender, in order to cause as much damage as possible to the pursuer.”

Fourth, “there was obviously a campaign within the local SNP against” Ms McAnulty in January and February 2016, as shown by articles in the Daily Record based on leaks.

He said: “I regard the complaint made by the defender as part of this campaign, designed to prevent the pursuer being nominated as a candidate for the Scottish Parliament elections, and possibly to oust her from the party.

“The timing of her complaint is, in my view, highly significant, coming as it did after the Daily Record articles traducing the pursuer.

“So also, in my opinion, is the fact that she worked for Richard Lyle MSP.

“Although it is not necessary for the pursuer to establish a motive for the defender’s statement, I am satisfied upon the entire evidence led that the defender was part of a campaign against the pursuer.”

Fifth, Ms McCulloch’s previous conviction on a charge of theft. “This in itself does not establish that she lied, but it does show that she is not averse to acting dishonestly.”

Sixth, he did “not accept the pursuer has generally racist views”.

Seventh, his belief in Mr Bonnar’s evidence that Ms McAnulty did not say “Pakis”.

He said: “He was, to my mind, an entirely honest and reliable witness. He had no axe to grind and no reason whatsoever to lie. He was a guileless greenhorn in the world of local politics, unused to its scheming machinations.

“He was clear that he was in the defender’s car and that the alleged statement was not made by the pursuer.

“He stated that he abhorred racism: that being so, I would have expected him to take some action in relation to the pursuer had she made the statement attributed to her.

“I refuse to accept that he committed perjury in order to assist the pursuer.

“On the other hand, I did not accept the evidence of the defender that the pursuer made the statement attributed to her.

“I found her to be an unforthcoming witness and formed a generally poor impression of her.

“Faced with a direct conflict between her evidence and that of the pursuer and Steven Bonnar, I have no hesitation in accepting the evidence of the latter two.”

Lord Uist also rejected the evidence of Ms McCulloch and others that the back seat of her car was so cluttered with election material that Mr Bonnar could not have been in it.

He said her account was “extremely strange”, adding: “I am satisfied that Steven Bonnar was in her car on the journeys to and from Lincoln Avenue [to canvas]. I regard his evidence as the touchstone of the truth and reject the evidence of any witness in conflict with it.”

He concluded: “I am therefore satisfied that the statement made by the defender attributing the alleged statement to the pursuer was false.

“Moreover, as stated above, I am satisfied that it was activated by malice and ill-will as part of a campaign directed against the pursuer by the opposing faction within the local SNP.

“On the view I have taken no issue of veritas, fair comment or qualified privilege arises.”

He said the “false allegation of racism against the pursuer [in the email of 5 February 2016] was extremely serious in nature and caused her great distress. The defender must be held liable for direct publication to the recipients of the complaint.”

Paul Kelly, the Labour depute leader of North Lanarkshire Council, said the judgment was a "a damning indictment" of the local SNP.

He said: "The public will be rightly disgusted to hear of... this unfounded allegation of racism, which was part of a smear campaign which ended Julie McAnulty's political career.

"It is clear that SNP headquarters should immediately conduct a full investigation of the elected members who played their part in this scandal."

He also said that North Lanarkshire SNP Councillor Allan Stubbs, who admitted in court he may have called Ms McAnulty a "twisted bitch", should quit as party whip on the council.

He said: "We believe it is only right that Allan Stubbs should step down from his position as SNP Business Manager until that investigation is concluded."