The science secretary, Michelle Donelan, received government advice before she tweeted a letter in which she accused an academic of supporting Hamas, Downing Street has said.
No 10 refused to say what advice officials had given her and whether she actually followed it, but insisted she had “acted in line with established precedent”.
Kate Sang, a professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, sued Donelan for libel after the minister published a letter to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in October urging it to cut links with her and another academic, Dr Kamna Patel of University College London.
Donelan expressed her “disgust and outrage” at their appointment to an expert advisory group to Research England on equality, diversity and inclusion.
However, in a statement posted to X on Tuesday, Donelan admitted she was wrong and had misunderstood the social media posts. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) later said it had paid £15,000 to settle the case without admitting liability, out of public funds.
Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said on Thursday that the prime minister backed the cabinet minister, as Donelan faced calls to resign.
Speaking on a visit to South Yorkshire, Sunak told broadcasters he had been “focused on the budget” when asked why Donelan was still in post. He said it was a “longstanding convention stretching back many years that the government will fund those legal disputes when it relates to government ministers doing their work”.
Outlining the advice Donelan received, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “I can’t obviously comment on specific legal advice. But as I say, and as the DSIT statement said, she received advice and was, in line with established precedent, provided legal support and representation.”
When asked whether it was acceptable for people to make false claims and wait for a long investigation to take place before retracting them, the spokesperson said: “There was an independent investigation. And at the conclusion of that, the secretary of state was clear that she fully accepted that the individual was not an extremist, a supporter of Hamas or any other proscribed organisation, and she therefore withdrew her concerns and deleted her original post.”
An investigation by UKRI had cleared both Sang and Patel of the allegations.
The leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, has also defended Donelan, telling MPs the minister was of good character because she returned a redundancy payment from her brief time as education secretary in the final days of Boris Johnson’s premiership.
Labour has criticised the decision to make UK taxpayers foot the £15,000 bill as a “new low for standards” and “totally insulting”.
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said: “I think most people watching this will be aghast. The government is telling them every day that they can’t do any more to help them.
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“People are really struggling to pay their bills, and the government says: ‘We can’t afford to help you any more.’ People know that public services are crumbling.
“And then you’ve got a minister who says something she shouldn’t have said, then has to pick up a legal action and pay damages and costs, and then says: ‘The taxpayer is going to pay for that.’”
DSIT confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that the sum was paid “without admitting any liability”.
The shadow leader of the Commons, Lucy Powell, asked whether Donelan had followed “appropriate advice” that was given to her, or had gone against it. “Because if [she went against it], then surely she should personally pay the costs,” Powell told MPs.
She also urged Donelan to make a statement in the Commons outlining what happened. “If the money was paid by taxpayers because it related to her ministerial responsibilities, then she must come to parliament as a minister and account for that.”
The Liberal Democrats have called for an investigation by the government’s ethics adviser into DSIT covering Donelan’s legal costs.
