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Labour’s chief whip Nick Brown is suing an author and his publisher for up to £50,000 over what he says are “wholly false” claims about his private life.

Tom Bower wrote a biography of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, published by Faber & Faber in March last year, which includes a claim that Mr Brown “was accused by the News of the World of paying £100 to rent boys to be kicked around a room”.

But Mr Brown, MP for Newcastle East, says the claim is untrue - both because it didn’t happen and because that’s not what the News of the World reported.

Top libel barrister Adrienne Page QC, representing Mr Brown, said in a written submission to the High Court: “Some friends and colleagues of the claimant, who have been shocked to read the words complained of in the book, have raised the allegation complained of with him.”

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Miss Page said that the “authenticity, importance and newsworthiness of the allegation” had been boosted by the “false allegation” that the News of the World had previously published the claims.

She said the News of the World had actually written that it had “not been able to substantiate in any way” what the newspaper called “lurid and fanciful allegations” against Mr Brown - but this was not mentioned in Mr Bower’s book.

And the book also failed to mention that Mr Brown told the News of the World that he denied the allegations, according to Miss Page.

The book, called Broken Vows: Tony Blair, the Tragedy of Power, received “extensive publicity and excellent reviews”, selling 33,000 copies, the MP’s lawyers say.

And Mr Brown is now suing for “aggravated damaged for libel”.

Miss Page said in her submission that the MP is seeking aggravated damages on the basis that Mr Bower and Faber & Faber “did not seek to verify the wholly false allegation complained of with Mr Brown before publication or even contact him for comment, with the consequence that the first time he knew of the false claim in the book was when he read it at home in the copy which he had bought.”

And she said: “The unorthodox sexual conduct imputed to Mr Brown would provoke understandable shock and disgust among ordinary reasonable readers and cause them to view Mr Brown as a seedy individual who was likely to be psychologically flawed and inadequate, having to pay prostitutes in order to obtain sexual satisfaction.”

Mr Bower and Faber & Faber are contesting the case, insisting that the words Mr Brown is complaining about are not defamatory and caused him no serious harm.

They say the allegations first surfaced in the News of the World almost 20 years ago and have since been regularly repeated in the media - a claim denied by Mr Brown - but the MP has not taken any action until now, they say.

And they point out that Mr Brown’s political career has “prospered nonetheless”.

They also claim that, as a public figure, Mr Brown, 67, “must be expected to show a high level of tolerance of defamation” and that there is “no real need to protect or vindicate” his reputation.

London’s High Court heard they have “indicated” that, if necessary, they will argue that the words were “true” and that there are “reasonable grounds to suspect” Mr Brown of “paying a rent boy, or rent boys, for rough sex”. At this stage no evidence has been offered.

After a preliminary hearing, Mr Justice Warby ruled that the issues of what the words actually meant, and whether they had a “defamatory tendency”, should be tried as preliminary issues. A date for that hearing has yet to be set.

Mr Brown told ChronicleLive: “I have confidence in the courts and I have confidence in my legal team.

“The case isn’t concluded yet, and I don’t feel it right to comment further because the matter is before the courts.”