The Liberal Democrat Party has been forced to issue a circular to its members reminding them to “be liberal”. The announcement was made to help 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 as the parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam after opposition from secularists in 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 both of these 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 as a result of such cases and said that the party needed to be very careful about discriminating against people with “protected beliefs”.
In response, the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum issued a statement which said, "It is a sad indictment of the democratic health of the Liberal Democrats that party HQ has to remind activists to be Liberal.
"Our hope now is that the party would end the run of expensive court cases by admitting it has got this one wrong. An apology is due to David for the delay [in resolving his case] and for the apparent tolerance of secular bigotry.
"Traditionally, the party has been a home for people of all faiths and none - a party of diversity and rational tolerance."
The Liberal Democrats have always had an uneasy relationship with the Christian faith. Former party leader, Tim Farron, was criticised by many in 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".
