Over 20,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Lib Dems to reinstate David Campanale, who’s suing the party over his deselection.
Campanale has launched legal motion against the party claiming that he was deselected due to his Christian beliefs. The Lib Dems have denied the claim and said they’re “home to people of all faiths and none, including many Christians”.
A separate grievance lodged with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over the matter alleges that Campanale, a practising Anglican and former BBC journalist, was “mocked and abused” over his faith.
He has been replaced because the candidate for Sutton and Cheam by Luke Taylor. An appeal of his deselection is ongoing.
It is believed to be the primary time that a political party has been sued for discrimination because of somebody’s Christian faith.
The petition, on CitizenGo, calls on Ann Glaze, Chair of London Liberal Democrats, to reinstate Campanale because the candidate for Sutton and Cheam.
It claims that Campanale has faced “undue hostility” for his Christian faith and says that not reinstating him might be “damaging” to the party.
“It suggests Christians are unwelcome within the party,” reads the petition, which has been signed by 23,000 people to date.
Critics have drawn parallels with the fate of Tim Farron who resigned as party leader in 2017 after facing intense media scrutiny over his Christian faith. At the time he said that “remaining faithful to Christ” was incompatible with being party leader.
The Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Rev Andrew Watson, is among the many signatories of the petition in support of Campanale. He said that conservative Christians may be subjected to “hostile and degrading questions” that other people of religion should not asked.
“We are quite rightly as a nation very aware of and important of other parts of the world where persons are discriminated against on the idea of their religion and faith,” he told The Telegraph.
“It is significant that we should not pointing the finger at others whilst doing the identical thing ourselves. It is significant that individuals of religion can take part in public life.”
Other signatories include Lord Alton, a former Lib Dem MP and now crossbench peer, who said that party leader Ed Davey “must reverse a shocking decision”.
“I even have signed this petition against appalling treatment that’s neither liberal nor democratic and hope others will accomplish that too,” he wrote on X.
The Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen, writer of the federal government’s 2019 review into persecution, responded to the tweet by saying, “I agree.”
“The deselection of David Campanale on the grounds of his beliefs alone is shockingly illiberal. On this basis [19th century liberal prime minister] Gladstone would not have been allowed to face in Sutton and Cheam,” he said.
