Former award-winning BBC journalist David Campanale is suing the Liberal Democrats for allegedly deselecting him as a result of he’s a practising Christian.
The revelation comes after The Unbiased disclosed {that a} petition demanding he’s reinstated because the candidate for Sutton and Cheam in south London had been backed by the bishop of Winchester Philip Mounstephen who warned that Liberal greats like William Gladstone would not be welcome within the occasion.
Since then the GoCitizen petition has been supported by 20,000 folks and the bishop of Guildford Andrew Watson has added his assist.
In an extra transfer as we speak, court docket papers have been filed in opposition to the Lib Dems for discrimination and victimisation in opposition to Mr Campanale.
It’s the first time {that a} political occasion within the UK has confronted authorized motion for discrimination due to somebody’s Christian religion and comes regardless of assurances beforehand given by chief Sir Ed Davey that he would deal with “intolerant” teams who wished to push folks with a standard Christian view out of the occasion.
Mr Campanale’s case is being supported by a doc concerning Labour MP Rob Flello who defected to the Lib Dems however was deselected because the candidate of Stoke South due to his Christian views. The declare is that the messages reveal an unofficial coverage of discriminating in opposition to folks with conventional Christian values on moral points comparable to abortion or euthanasia.
The papers have been filed although an enchantment in opposition to his deselection as a potential candidate is ongoing as a result of in any other case they’d be out of time. The occasion has chosen one other candidate, Luke Taylor, to symbolize them on the common election within the goal seat of Sutton and Cheam.
The authorized submission claims that Taylor, an area councillor who got here third to Campanale within the authentic choice, was one of many prime movers in forcing his deselection and made plenty of complaints in opposition to him.
It’s alleged that Taylor informed the dedicated Anglican that he “didn’t have any proper to a conscience based mostly on his Christian religion on any topic of coverage”.
Mr Taylor can be allegedly mentioned to have claimed that “the occasion of previous outstanding Liberal Democrats with Christian beliefs, comparable to Shirley Williams and Charles Kennedy, was ‘over’, and that he and others have been constructing a ‘secular occasion’ which might haven’t any place for Christians anticipating to “maintain to their non secular or conscientious opinions”.
The Equality and Human Rights Fee has additionally acquired complaints about Mr Campanale’s remedy.
A Lib Dem spokesman mentioned: “The Liberal Democrat chief and all of our London MPs are churchgoing Christians, and this advanced case about David Campanale which started throughout Covid, resulted in him being deselected and the native occasion overwhelmingly voting for a brand new candidate.”