David Campanale, the Liberal Democrat candidate at the centre of an a religious discrimination scandal, has demanded almost £790,000 in damages from the party, which has previously admitted to unlawful religious discrimination.
Campanale was deselected as the party's prospective MP candidate for Sutton and Cheam, and replaced by Luke Taylor MP ahead of the 2024 general election. Mr Taylor is still the Lib Dem MP for Sutton and Cheam.
Campanale, a lay Anglican and former BBC journalist, launched legal action after an alleged two-year campaign against him by local party members and LGBT activists. In the complaint, Campanale alleged that he had been “mocked and abused in relation to his beliefs”.
After a four-year legal battle, the party admitted unlawful religious discrimination and agreed to pay legal costs.
However, now the amount of compensation is being disputed. The Guardian reports that it has seen Campanale’s schedule of loss. The document demands £788,740.75, including interest, as compensation for injury to feelings, aggravated damages, past and future earnings, the loss of an MP’s pension, counselling costs and the “loss of a chance”, or “loss of political capital”.
In response, the Liberal Democrats have described this claim as “grossly inflated and egregious”, with lawyers for the party arguing instead that he should receive £14,000 for injury to feelings, while nothing should be awarded for aggravated damages, past and future loss of earnings, the MP’s pension and the loss of political capital.
During his battle with the party Campanale claimed that he received a phone call from Taylor, his replacement, in which Taylor told him the Liberal Democrats were being built into a “secular party” with no place for Christians.
From 2015 to 2017 the party was led by Tim Farron, who has made no secret of the importance of Christianity to his life. Farron stepped down after just two years in the job, stating that leading the party had become incompatible with his Christian faith, with homosexuality being the flashpoint.
For weeks Farron was pressed by the media on whether he believed gay sex to be a sin. Farron eventually said he did not believe so, however after stepping down from the leadership, he retracted this statement, saying he had made it “foolishly and wrongly” while under considerable pressure.
The Lib Dems have insisted that they are an inclusive party and that Christians are welcome.
