The Liberal Democrat Party has been forced to issue a circular to its members reminding them to “be liberal”. The announcement was made to assist save the party from significant legal costs stemming from apparent breaches of the 2010 Equality Act.
One such case was that of former BBC journalist David Campanale who was deselected because the parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam after opposition from secularists within the party who objected to his Christian faith.
Campanale is crowdfunding a legal challenge against the party, accusing it of breaching the Equality Act via direct discrimination and in other ways.
In two other cases, Natalie Bird, the candidate for Wakefield was deselected for holding “gender critical” beliefs, and a parliamentary researcher was sacked by her Liberal Democrat MP boss, also for sharing gender critical views. In each of those cases the party was forced to pay damages.
In a circular to local associations and party bodies, the Chief Executive of the party, Mike Dixon, warned that the party could “significant” costs because of this of such cases and said that the party needed to be very careful about discriminating against individuals with “protected beliefs”.
In response, the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum issued a press release which said, “It is a tragic indictment of the democratic health of the Liberal Democrats that party HQ has to remind activists to be Liberal.
“Our hope now could be that the party would end the run of high-priced court cases by admitting it’s got this one improper. An apology is as a consequence of David for the delay [in resolving his case] and for the apparent tolerance of secular bigotry.
“Traditionally, the party has been a house for people of all faiths and none – a celebration of diversity and rational tolerance.”
The Liberal Democrats have all the time had an uneasy relationship with the Christian faith. Former party leader, Tim Farron, was criticised by many within the party for his views homosexuality and eventually stood down, saying he was “torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader”.
