A tribunal which was hearing claims that a teacher was sacked for challenging her school’s transgender policy has collapsed after a member made anti-Conservative slurs and showed “significant prejudice against Christians”.
As reported by the Times, all three members of the tribunal in Nottingham, including the judge, have recused themselves in an effort to avoid a “perception of bias” against the teacher, who is said to have raised concerns about a socially transitioning eight-year-old. The report continues:
The rare move by the tribunal’s judge, Victoria Butler, and members Javed Akhtar and Jed Purkis – came after the discovery of social media comments alleged “to advocate religious discrimination”.
Purkis, a non-legal member of the Nottingham tribunal hearing, had described himself online as a socialist and trade unionist. On his social media accounts, which have now been made private, Purkis responded to the question, “What’s a good collective noun for Tories?” by saying “a tumour of Tories” and then subsequently as a “cess pit of Tories”.
In another comment on Twitter/X, Purkis complained that his social media timelines were “clogged up with right-wing nutjobs”. And responding to a comment that only atheists should be in public office, Purkis said: “Damn right, you won’t catch us killing in the name of our non-god.”
Referring to another commentator on the social media site who had said that Christians were “worse than woke”, Purkis responded: “If they are so f***ing super how comes there is so much shit going on in the world”.
Purkis had also “liked” posts questioning the existence of cancel culture which “alt right cranks keep bleating about”.
After Purkis’s comments came to light, Pavel Stroilov, the lawyer for the teacher, made an application for a recusal. He called on the panel to assess the posts “from an assumed standpoint of a fair-minded and informed observer. That observer needs to consider whether there is a possibility of bias, including subconscious bias”.
Stroilov argued that it would not be sufficient only for Purkis to step down, since the other two judges had presided over the trial together for more than six days and would be perceived as influenced by his view of the case.
In agreeing with that argument, the tribunal acknowledged that ‘“doubt would arise in the mind of a fair-minded and informed observer” as to their impartiality in the case.
The teacher – who has been anonymised to protect the identity of one of the pupils at the school – is suing Nottinghamshire county council and one of its primary schools for victimisation for whistleblowing, unfair dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of her Christian beliefs.
Worth reading in full.
