A lawyer representing influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate has said there was “no threat” referred to in social media posts from his clients about MP Sorcha Eastwood, other than in a “political sense”.
However, the legal team of the Northern Ireland MP responded by calling this an attempt to “to trivialise the relevant offensive postings”.
Kevin Winters of KRW Law said, earlier this week, he had been instructed by Ms Eastwood to begin legal action against the brothers over social media posts.
The posts were made last week, a day after the Lagan Valley MP had told the House of Commons she was a “survivor of abuse” and had received rape threats.
In a statement, Andrew Ford of Holborn Adams, who represents the Tate brothers, said: “No legal proceedings have been commenced at this stage.
“A letter was received from KRW Law which alluded to a potential claim.”
Mr Ford said the letter from Mr Winters had been sent in response to a letter sent on behalf of Tristan Tate which raised concerns about a tweet sent by Ms Eastwood.
He added: “It only takes someone to read the tweets sent by my clients to realise that there is no threat referred to, directly or indirectly, other than in a political sense (ie the threat of changing the shape of politics in the future).”
In response, Mr Winters said: “Our letter to Holborn Adams is unequivocal. It makes it clear our client will be issuing a claim.”
Mr Winters rejected the claim that the letter was sent in response to a “letter of claim” received by Ms Eastwood, stating it was “sent on an entirely standalone basis”.
He added: “We can confirm we did send a second separate letter in response to the letter of claim in which we rejected the allegations made.
“It is a matter of concern that the solicitors acting for Mr Tate have sought to trivialise the relevant offensive postings as amounting solely to threats of a political nature.”
Ms Eastwood told the House of Commons last week: “I am a survivor of abuse myself.
“Northern Ireland is one of the most dangerous places in Europe to be a woman.”
She added: “We previously did a lot of visits to the Northern Ireland Parliament building, Stormont, whenever I sat there in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and during one school visit a member of the public came up and said they wanted to rape me.
“And there were two people there and we just kind of were paralysed with the response, and that was not the right response. Not from me, but from the people around.”
Andrew Tate has previously been banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook after the platforms accused him of posting hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.
But he remains popular on X, with almost 10 million followers, many of them young men and schoolchildren.
