A former BBC journalist and local politician in London was ‘discriminated against’ by his own political party whilst leading the Liberal Democrats in his constituency. A court now ruled that the reason for the attacks was his Christian faith.

The Lib Demis (the third-largest party in the UK) will now have to pay David Campanale compensation of over £250,000 (€340,000).

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Elected leader, later harassed

When David Campanale was elected leader of the Lib Dems in Sutton and Cheam (London) in 2021, he did not expect that just a few weeks later, an aggressive campaign against him would be launched by other members of this centrist liberal party.

Campanale is an active member of an Anglican church with evangelical theology, and had spoken out as pro-life and against euthanasia (a highly polarising issue in British political debate).

Other party members and local activists who found his views unacceptable organised a campaign to have him “deselected”, which included mockery at party meetings, harassment in public spaces and constant questioning about his faith.

“I’ve been in politics for 40 years… I’m not complaining about that… nor am I deterred by hurtful words,” he explained in an interview with Radio Premier Christianity. “Political abuse, when it’s political, is part of the cut and thrust of how we do politics in our country… it doesn’t come as a surprise. What is unacceptable is religiously aggravated harassment.”

The situation became so tense that other members of his own party refused to share political events with him.

“Losing the party’s confidence”

Campanale was removed from his post by the local Liberal Democracty Party branch in 2023 after “losing the party’s confidence”. Eventually, another candidate, Luke Taylor, was selected as the candidate and went on to win the seat that would see him represent the constituency in the UK Parliament. In a previous vote, Taylor had only managed to come third.

The journalist claims that during his time as head of the local party, he was repeatedly told that the Lib Dems were no longer a party for Christians. The Christian candidate lodged complaints with the party’s higher authorities, but these were dismissed.

In the process, the Christian politician says he told party members: “You can offer me anything you like, but I will not sacrifice or trade my conscience for anything in the world”.

Lib Dems guilty of discrimination and victimisation

David Campanale took his case to court, suing the Lib Dems in Sutton and Cheam, as well as the party at regional level in London and at national level. His argument was that the party had breached the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination on religious grounds.

The judge has now ruled that there was “direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation and breach of contract” against David Campanale.

The judgment states that the main instigator of the harassment against the Christian politician was MP Taylor himself, who, after succeeding in ousting Campanale, became the leader and is now a member of parliament in Westminster.

The three branches of the Lib Dems have responded to the court ruling by admitting guilt for repeated discrimination, yet leader Ed Davey insists that any candidate, regardless of their religion, is welcomed in the party.

The precedent of Tim Farron

David Campanale’s case at local level is reminiscent of the case of Tim Farron, which received greater media coverage and caused a national political earthquake.

Farron, also an evangelical, led the Liberal Democrats in the national Parliament between 2015 and 2017, and also endured an intense campaign from his own colleagues and in the press over his Christian values, to the point where he resigned from his post two years after being elected.

“Holding faithfully to the Bible’s teaching has felt impossible,” he said at the press conference in which he resigned from his post. Farron remains an elected MP to this day and has spoken at length about how the current polarising debate greatly hinders freedom of conscience in the British political context.

In Scotland, Kate Fobes' case

In 2023, Kate Forbes, the favourite in all the polls to become First Minister of Scotland, was also the victim of internal harassment within her party, the Scottish National Party (SNP), due to her evangelical faith. Media pressure over her stance on same-sex marriage and internal pressure from the party’s former leader, Nicola Morrison, led to a narrow defeat against the liberal Muslim Humza Yousaf, whose values SNP members considered closer to the party’s ideology than those of Forbes.

that year, a poll concluded that, at that time, the British preferred Muslims to evangelicals in positions of political leadership.