Lib Dems Told to Pay Damages to Ex-candidate Suspended for ‘Gender Critical’ Views

Former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Natalie Bird following her compensation hearing at the Central London County Court in London, England, on Jan. 8, 2025. Helen William/PA Wire

The Liberal Democrats have been ordered to pay £14,000 in damages to a former parliamentary candidate who was discriminated against for her so-called “gender critical” beliefs.

Natalie Bird was suspended days after she was nominated as the parliamentary candidate for Wakefield in December 2018.

Days later, Bird had attended a party meeting wearing a top bearing the words, “Woman: Adult Human Female.”

Soon after, she received a letter suspending her membership and informing her that there would be a disciplinary hearing against her for breaching the Lib Dem code of conduct.

Bird sued for discrimination and representatives of the party membership had previously conceded to the claim, admitting she had been discriminated against.

Complaints System ‘Weaponised’

Central London County Court heard on Wednesday that Bird had been barred from standing as a parliamentary candidate for a decade.

She said felt targeted in a campaign of discrimination and that the party’s complaints system was “weaponised” against her.

Bird said she had been called “an Illiberal TERF”—an acronym of “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” a slur used by radical transgender activists against gender realists.

The court heard: “Ms Bird holds the belief that sex and gender are separate. Her views are known as gender critical.

“She alleges that as a result she has suffered discrimination by the Liberal Democrats which has caused her great hurt to her feelings.”

The judge said that the level of compensation reflected that the discrimination was not “a one-off or an isolated incident and it is likely to have had a significant impact on Ms Bird.”

Following the ruling, a Liberal Democrat spokesman said, “This case relates to events that took place in 2019 under a different complaints system that has since been changed.”

‘Gender Critical’

In recent years, the term “gender critical” has been used to describe the normal, realist belief that sex is binary and immutable, and that separate spaces for men and women are important and must be maintained.

Several individuals who have been punished for these opinions have been able to receive some form of redress.

In August, a trainee psychotherapist who was expelled from university for expressing gender critical beliefs received an apology from the institute.

James Esses had been studying for a Master’s degree in Integrative Psychotherapy at the Metanoia Institute in London in 2021.

He was thrown off his course after he started an online petition highlighting concerns that the government’s proposed ban on conversion therapy could criminalise medical professionals who do not affirm the gender identity of a child suffering from gender dysphoria.

Metanoia admitted that Esses’s views are legally protected under the 2010 Equality Act and that the expulsion impacted him professionally and personally.

James Esses, commentator and co-founder of Thoughtful Therapists, speaking to NTD's 'British Thought Leaders' programme. NTD

In May, a judge sided with a woman who took a rape crisis centre to court over constructive dismissal, after she became the subject of a “heresy hunt” for saying victims should know the sex of the people who work there.

Roz Adams won her claim against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, with the ­tribunal ruling she had been ­discriminated against and harassed in an “egregious” manner because of her views.

PA Media contributed to this report.