The Daily Mail has paid a Walthamstow family £150k after columnist Katie Hopkins claimed they had ties to Al Qaeda.

An opinion piece published in the national newspaper on December 23, 2015, alleged Mohammed Tariq Mahmood and brother, Mohammed Zahid Mahmood, had links to extremist groups.

Eleven members of the British Muslim family were barred from boarding a flight to Los Angeles by US officials at Gatwick airport on December 15 last year.

The Mahmood brothers, who were travelling with nine of their children aged between eight and 19, had planned to visit Disneyland.

However, a week later, Hopkins attacked the family in a column titled: “Just because Britain's border security is a Mickey Mouse operation you can't blame America for not letting this lot travel to Disneyland – I wouldn't either”.

The former Apprentice contestant went on to claim the reason the Mahmoods gave for their visit to the US was bogus and the brothers had links to Al Qaeda.

The Daily Mail today (Monday, December 19) issued an apology to the family, stating they were not “extremists” and did not have connections to the Islamist group.

The newspaper also retracted statements published in a second column by Hopkins a week later, which claimed Mohammed Tariq Mahmood’s son, Hamza, was responsible for a Facebook page containing extremist material.

The article included a photograph of the Mahmoods' family home, in Lansdown Road, Walthamstow.

The statement issued by the Mail said: “We are happy to make clear that Tariq Mahmood and Zahid Mahmood are not extremists, nor do they have links to Al Qaeda.

“They were travelling to the USA with their families to see one of their brothers for a holiday in California and they had indeed planned to visit Disneyland as part of their trip.

“We are happy to make clear that there is no suggestion that either Hamza nor Taeeba or Hafsa Mahmood (Hamza's mother and sister) have any links to extremism.

“We and Katie Hopkins apologise to the Mahmood family for the distress and embarrassment caused and have agreed to pay them substantial damages and their legal costs.”