Christian Liberal Democrats feared that they would be expelled from the party in a “night of the long knives” after former BBC journalist David Campanale was interrogated over his faith and then deselected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam.
As reported by the Telegraph, local party members and some LGBT activists began questioning Campanale about his Christian views shortly after he was selected to contest the seat in 2021. The report continues:
There were “hostile” questions over his suitability, with some complaining that a decade earlier he had been a member of the Christian People’s Alliance (CPA), which has campaigned against abortion and gay marriage.
As a result of attempts to force Mr Campanale out, other Christians in the party contacted him to express their concern.
In a discussion about whether all former CPA members would be “cleared out”, one party member said that he “wouldn’t be surprised if the night of the long knives included me”.
It has now emerged that local officers were warned that there was “the feel of a witch-hunt” against Mr Campanale.
On Monday, the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum (LDCF) wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), adding its voice to calls from other members for an investigation.
The EHRC is now considering the complaint put forward by the group, which represents more than 400 party members and counts Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader, as a patron. It is understood that MP members of the LDCF did not agree to the letter being sent.
The LDCF executive told the EHRC on Monday: “After over 80 documented alerts from 2022 up until now, it has become sadly clear to us that our own party has resolved not to act and is not taking these complaints ‘very seriously’.
“If the opposition to Mr Campanale’s candidacy had been based on any other protected characteristic, we believe the Party would have taken a zero-tolerance approach.”
Lord Alton, a crossbench peer and former Lib Dem MP and party whip, said that the treatment of Mr Campanale was “neither liberal nor democratic”.
He told the Telegraph: “It smacks of the same prejudiced intolerance that increasingly disrespects conscience and has infected too much of politics and our national life.”
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