Christian lawmaker says religious discrimination cost him over $1 million
David Campanale, a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, says religious discrimination over his Christianity cost him more than $1 million in lost political opportunity. He's now seeking damages from the party in a civil case before the County Court in Central London.
Campanale, an Anglican who served as a Liberal Democrat councilor from 1986 to 1994 and was first approved as a prospective parliamentary candidate as far back as 2017, was targeted in part for his pro-life views and opposition to assisted suicide.
The Liberal Democrats selected Campanale, a former BBC journalist, to stand in Sutton and Cheam in 2021, then removed him from that role in August 2023, The Guardian reported. Including interest, he is now claiming £788,740.75, about $1,076,000, according to a schedule of loss.
The sum he's seeking covers lost earnings, past and future, aggravated damages, injury to his feelings, a lawmaker’s pension, counseling costs and what the filing calls lost political capital.
The party has admitted discriminating against Campanale, directly and indirectly, over his religion under the Equality Act, and admitted it failed to handle the complaints he raised.
The court will decide how much he's owed.
In a counter-schedule filed last Friday, the Liberal Democrats called Campanale’s claim “grossly inflated and egregious.” Party lawyers valued injury to his feelings at £14,000, about $19,100, and put every other category, including aggravated damages and lost earnings, at zero, though the Lib Dems’ own overall figure comes to about ₤22,800, or about $31,100.
Campanale says party activists mocked and abused him over his Christianity and organized a campaign to remove him, with some refusing to campaign on his behalf. He says that at a party meeting in January 2022, roughly 30 people questioned his faith and asked if he was enjoying his “martyrdom just like Jesus did.”
His claim also alleges that Lib Dem campaign leaflets left him out and that he was told to stay away from certain wards where activists objected to his beliefs. In a March 2022 call cited in the claim, Luke Taylor, who went on to replace him as candidate, told Campanale his religious views carried no weight in the party and that Christians would have no place in what he called a “secular party.”
Taylor had placed third in the original selection process but went on to win Sutton and Cheam with a majority of 3,801 after Campanale’s exit, and later kept the seat in Britain’s 2024 election. The constituency has grown safer for the Lib Dems since, with recent polling putting the party well clear of the Conservatives there.
Senior party figures, including former leader Tim Farron and Simon Hughes, a former deputy leader, have criticized the case and pressed for an outside review. Farron has called for the party to apologize, calling the treatment of Campanale “manifest discrimination,” while former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has said the party’s stance risks making it impossible for Christians to represent it.
The damages dispute follows a court order issued in April by Judge Alan Johns of the Royal Courts of Justice, in which the three Lib Dem bodies named in the suit, covering Sutton, London and the wider federal party in England, accepted responsibility for the discrimination Campanale faced, CP reported. The order cited victimization, breach of contract, and direct and indirect discrimination tied to his Christian faith.
Ai Law, which represents Campanale under Section 10 of the Equality Act 2010, said at the time that the party had agreed to pay at least 250,000 pounds, about $337,250, over what barrister Alasdair Henderson called an attack on Campanale’s “protected beliefs.” Court filings name Taylor, who still holds the seat, repeatedly as a “main instigator of the discrimination.”
Before it admitted liability, the party argued in its defense filings that it retained the right to deselect candidates whose religious views clashed with party policy, and it called it settled fact that the era of prominent Christian party figures, among them Charles Kennedy and Shirley Williams, had passed.
The Liberal Democrat Christian Forum has since pressed the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate, calling the party’s conduct toward Campanale severe enough to warrant an outside inquiry. Party leader Ed Davey’s office began reviewing internal complaints against Campanale in January 2022, a process a local party chairperson later said had relied on claims that were “baseless and distorted.”
A Lib Dem spokesperson, speaking before the counter-schedule was filed, said the party welcomes members of every faith and none, pointing to three Christian lawmakers holding seats near Sutton and Cheam, Davey among them. Campanale has said the party’s own lawmakers stand exposed as lawbreakers, and he has thanked supporters, among them 1,514 people who backed his case through CitizenGo, a crowdfunding platform.
