Boyle: Racist tag ‘libellous’

Comedian Frankie Boyle complained that he had been libelled when a tabloid newspaper described him as “racist”.

Lawyers told the High Court in London that a Daily Mirror article which started with the words “Racist comedian Frankie Boyle” was defamatory.

A barrister told a jury that the newspaper also defamed Boyle, from Glasgow, by saying he had been “forced to quit” the BBC show Mock The Week.

Daily Mirror publisher Mirror Group Newspapers is disputing Boyle’s allegations in a trial expected to last a week.

Barrister David Sherborne, for Boyle, said that to call someone “racist” was “obviously defamatory”.

And he said any suggestion that the comedian had been “forced to quit” Mock The Week or was sacked was “completely untrue”.

He said the comic did not object to being criticised but did object to being described as racist.

The case continues.