A youth charity has begun a legal challenge to prevent the actor Laurence Fox from using its name for his new political party.
Lawyers for the charity Reclaim which works to end the inequality that prevents working-class young people to help fulfill their leadership potential, said they had sent a cease and desist letter to Fox, giving him until 14 October to stop using its name.
The letter says that calling his new political party Reclaim would be likely to cause substantial damage to the charity’s reputation and goodwill.
In addition, young people on Reclaim’s programmes have launched a crowdfunder on GoFundMe to raise money for the legal action and a social media video appeal calling for Fox to drop the name.
The campaign has raised more than £16,000 of its £20,000 target from 982 donors in just over two days.
It comes after the charity leader Simon Blake said he would sue Fox for defamation over comments he made on Twitter last week.
Speaking about Fox’s choice of name for his new party, 18-year-old Olivia, who helped to organise the GoFundMe campaign and is a participant in Reclaim’s programmes, said: “I think the decision Laurence Fox has made to take our name is completely wrong. It just feels like another example of working class people getting pushed aside.
”He could have picked any name, so why choose to take something from working-class young people? It's completely wrong and lots of young people at Reclaim are really upset about it,” she said.
A spokesperson for The Reclaim Party said: “We are aware of the contentions made by the charity and their representations are being examined by our legal team.”
