Former footballer Joey Barton has paid over £500,000 in damages and legal fees following the conclusion of his year-long libel battle with Jeremy Vine over a string of defamatory social media posts, including one which referred to the cycling advocate as a “bike nonce”, the broadcaster has claimed.

In March 2024, Channel 5 presenter Vine filed the defamation claim after ex-Manchester City and Newcastle United midfielder Barton published 14 posts linking him to Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris, and claiming that the broadcaster had advocated for forced vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic, after the pair clashed on X, formerly Twitter, over the role of women in men’s football.

Barton referred to Vine, who uploads videos from his cycle journeys around London and regularly addresses cycling-related topics and debates on his Channel 5 show, as a “big bike nonce” and a “paedo defender”, prompting the presenter to sue the retired footballer for libel and harassment.

In doing so, Vine joined former England footballer and current TV pundit Eni Aluko in taking legal action against Barton for his social media comments, which have ramped up and become increasingly controversial since the 42-year-old’s sacking as manager of League One side Bristol Rovers in October 2023.

Joey Barton
Joey Barton (Image Credit: TalkTV)

Complaining about Barton’s criticism of female football pundits such as Aluko, Vine wrote on X: “Genuinely, is it possible we are dealing with a brain injury here?” Barton replied by tweeting: “No brain injury here pal. You just don’t like the truth”.

Barton had also previously asked Vine to stop mentioning him during his broadcast work, tweeting on January 8 last year: “Oi, bike nonce! Stop talking about me on your s**tty show.”

In other cycling-related posts, Barton called cyclists “pedalphiles” and asked for “a petition to charge ‘Pedalphiles’ road tax, need to have insurance and an MOT… to ride in London”. However, Vine’s subsequent defamation case was not related to Barton’s views on Vine as a cyclist or cycling in general.

> Joey Barton’s latest unhinged cycling-related social media rant tackles “road tax, insurance and MOT” for cyclists

In June 2024, following a preliminary hearing which found that 10 of Barton’s posts could defame Vine, the retired footballer apologised for the tweets, which he acknowledged were “untrue”, and agreed to pay the broadcaster £75,000 in damages and costs to settle the case.

“Between 8 and 12 January 2024 I published 11 posts which accused Jeremy Vine of having a sexual interest in children, and created a hashtag which made the same allegations, which were viewed millions of times,” Barton, who earned one cap for England as a late substitute in a friendly defeat to Spain in 2007, said in a statement at the time.

“I recognise that this is a very serious allegation. It is untrue. I do not believe that Mr Vine has a sexual interest in children, and I wish to set the record straight.

“I also published posts during the same period in which I referred to Mr Vine having advocated forced vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic, based upon a video clip of his TV programme.

“I accept that he did not advocate this policy and that the video clip has been edited to give a misleading impression of what he was in fact saying.

“I then taunted and abused Mr Vine for bringing a legal complaint against me. I have agreed not to make the same allegations again about Mr Vine and I apologise to him for the distress he has suffered. To resolve his claims against me in defamation and harassment, I have agreed to pay Mr Vine £75,000 in damages and his legal costs.”

> Ex-footballer Joey Barton apologises and pays Jeremy Vine £75,000 over “bike nonce” tweet – but Vine says apology “is not the final outcome of this case”

In a statement released on X on Wednesday, Vine revealed that this damages payment has now risen to £110,000. The BBC and Channel 5 presenter claimed Barton has now paid over £500,000 in damages and legal costs, after Vine brought a separate action to cover his costs when Barton argued that the figure agreed to in court was “too high”.

The broadcaster also revealed that he has initially requested that if Barton deleted the tweets and paid £10,000, he would “forget the whole thing”, but the retired footballer decided to “take the long road”.

“Thank you for such kind messages about my libel action against Joey Barton. I can confirm it is now concluded and I am satisfied with the result. Mr Barton has now paid out more than half a million pounds in my case alone,” Vine said in his statement.

“There seems to be some confusion about the stages of the case. The below is to explain the numbers. I have no further beef with Mr Barton, who has a series of ongoing legal problems to deal with. While defending my libel action, he also became a convicted wifebeater.

> “I’m impartial on everything – except my own safety”: Jeremy Vine on his cycling “radicalisation”, Twitter trolls, the “gaslighting of cyclists”, and why bad streets and bad drivers cause road danger

“My damages in the case were £110,000. These were paid last year, and Mr Barton made the agreed public apology. But my costs in bringing the case were between 180 and 190k. Mr Barton pledged in court to pay the costs, then chose to argue that the figure was too high.

“Frustratingly, this meant I had to bring a separate action to recover my costs. The separate action also had a cost to it. Mr Barton surrendered on the main costs two days before the costs recovery action, but it was too late to avoid being liable for the costs recovery action.

“So Barton paid for the libel. He paid the costs. He paid interest on the costs. He paid the cost of losing a challenge on the costs. And he paid his own costs, which will be more than mine because he had fancier lawyers. He has lost at least half a million pounds.”

Jeremy Vine with a penny farthing
Jeremy Vine with a penny farthing (Image Credit: Jeremy Vine)

Breaking down the legal costs involved, Vine claimed that Barton’s “minimum” £516,000 bill included £110,000 for the libel, £160,000 to cover Vine’s costs, £3,600 interest on those costs, £43,000 to cover the costs recovery action launched by Vine, and £200,000 for Barton’s own costs.

Vine continued: “People asked, ‘What if Barton refuses to pay, or can’t pay?’ To ensure he had the funds, I had to commission legal searches on his house. He owns it outright. Lawyers advised me that if he did not pay, they could put a charge on his house.

“This would mean Mr Barton would effectively become my tenant, paying me rent to live there. If he fell behind with the rent, I would have the right to evict him or force the sale of his house to recoup my debt.

“I had no wish to be in that position and I am grateful to my lawyers in ensuring we got the final payments in today. I may return to this subject in due course but for now it is a relief just to be vindicated and to have the case settled so decisively.

“Oh, I should have added: initially, I told Mr Barton that if he paid £10,000 total and deleted the tweets I’d forget the whole thing. It was him, not me, who decided to take the long road.”