27/08/2024
Great reporting from Tim Walker on avoidable costly legal cases of Liberal Democrat’s
“Mark Pack, LibDems president, is facing questions about his judgment after the party threw in the towel following a three-and-a-half-year legal battle with a parliamentary candidate who was barred from standing for wearing a T-shirt bearing the words: “Woman: Adult, Human, Female.”
“Mark has been presiding over an illiberal management culture where we are too quick to litigate and too slow to listen,” one party worker tells Mandrake. “We’ve taken almost £3m in donations from people who would be aghast by the proportion of it we are now paying out in court cases that should never have been fought.”
Natalie Bird, the candidate in Wakefield prior to her deselection in 2019, sought legal redress after concluding that the party’s complaints procedures left her nowhere else to go. She expects to receive substantial damages after the T-shirt row, which, with costs, is expected to set the Lib Dems back by up to £500,000.
I disclosed in July how the party had officially set aside £257,000 for what was coyly described as “provisions for liabilities – regulatory matters and claims”, which seemed at the time optimistic given the number of legal tussles the party was involved in.
These include cases brought by Jo Hayes, a barrister ousted from the Lib Dems’ federal board and seeking an injunction to get herself reinstated; David Campanale, demanding redress after being sacked as a candidate in Sutton and Cheam; and Avril Coelho, once the chair of its Disability Association, who has already accepted a substantial undisclosed sum after successfully arguing that she was victimised by party officials.
Pack was named as a representative of the party – in addition to Alison Rouse, its chair – in the case that Bird brought, where she had successfully argued breach of contract and direct discrimination because of gender-critical beliefs. The party finally admitted all of Bird’s claims at the pre-trial review hearing on July 22.
Bird said when she wore her T-shirt a senior party official had asked her if she was an approved candidate and when she said she was, the woman had replied: “Well, we’ll see about that.” Judgment on damages is not expected until December.”
theneweuropean.co.uk/lib-dems-throw…