LEGAL action against Reform UK over its handling of data requests can continue after the party lost a High Court bid today to have the claim dismissed.

The Good Law Project is suing Reform on behalf of 51 people who claim the party failed to reply to data subject access requests within the legal time frame.

Reform’s lawyers had described the claim as “politically motivated” and an “abuse of process,” asking the court to dismiss it.

But Mr Justice Murray refused the bids to strike out the case, ruling that the Good Law Project had “sufficient reasonable grounds” to bring it and that the claim was not abusive.

“The fact that Good Law Project has an underlying motive to bring the claim that is ‘political,’ if true, does not mean that this claim is an abuse of process,” he said.

The court heard that the campaign group developed a tool before the July 2024 general election, allowing people to ask political parties to stop processing their data.

More than 11,600 people used the tool, of whom 1,746 contacted Reform.

While other parties responded promptly, Reform failed to reply within a month, it was heard.