Food blogger and social activist Jack Monroe has commenced libel proceedings against the controversial journalist and pundit Katie Hopkins, in a row over tweets that Monroe claims implied she defaced, or condoned the defacing of, a war memorial.

The 28 year old writer, who rose to fame specialising in ‘austerity recipes’ and documenting the struggles of poverty in Britain, is suing Hopkins over tweets dating from May 2015. Monroe’s lawyers say Hopkins tweeted a picture of a war memorial in London’s Whitehall dedicated to the memory of women’s war efforts that had been daubed with the words “F*** Tory Scum” during an anti-austerity protest.

Katie HopkinsKatie Hopkins

“Scrawled on any memorials recently? Vandalised the memory of those who fought for your freedom. Grandma got any more medals?” Hopkins tweeted to Monroe shortly afterwards.

However, the entire incident soon appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, with Hopkins apparently confusing Monroe with New Statesman columnist Laurie Penny, another anti-austerity campaigner who had tweeted that she didn’t have a problem with vandalising war memorials as “the bravery of past generations does not oblige us to be cowed today.”

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The case opened on Monday (February 27th), with Monroe’s lawyers arguing the tweets, for which Hopkins has not apologised, were defamatory and had caused serious harm to the writer’s reputation.

Jack MonroeJack Monroe

The tweets suggested Monroe had “thereby desecrated the memory of those who fought for [Monroe’s] freedom and had committed a criminal act”, or had “condoned or approved” of the criminal vandalisation of a war memorial.

Furthermore, upon Monroe calling out Hopkins, the MailOnline columnist then tweeted: “Can someone explain to me – in 10 words or less – the difference between irritant @PennyRed and social anthrax @MsJackMonroe,” thereby proving she must have known she had gotten them mixed up, according to lawyers.

Monroe had said: “I have NEVER ‘scrawled on a memorial’. Brother in the RAF. Dad was a Para in the Falklands. You’re a piece of shit.” Hopkins later deleted the first two tweets but left the third one up.

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