Former NHS director sues Jeremy Hunt for religious discrimination

A former director of an NHS trust is suing Jeremy Hunt for religious discrimination after he was effectively barred from applying for positions following his public opposition to gay adoption.

Richard Page has lodged a claim at the employment tribunal, saying his televised comments in 2015 that it was in the best interests of a child to have a mother and father stemmed from his Christian faith.

His remarks led to him being sacked as a magistrate in March for serious misconduct, after 15 years on the bench. Two years earlier, the lord chancellor and lord chief justice reprimanded Page after finding his religious beliefs, rather than evidence, had influenced his decisions during a family court hearing.

Page, 70, was also a non-executive director at the Kent and Medway NHS and social care partnership trust. In March, following a complaint by the trust’s LGBT staff network, Page was suspended for the final three months of his four-year term in office.

In August, the NHS Termination of Appointments Panel told Page “it was not in the interests of the health service for you to serve as a non-executive director in the NHS”, in effect barring him from applying for directorships in the future.

Page, a former NHS manager from Headcorn, Kent, is bringing a claim against the health secretary and NHS Improvement, which has the power to appoint non-executive directors. He is pursuing a similar case against the lord chancellor over his sacking as a magistrate.

In a TV debate on Christians in public life in March 2015, Page said: “My responsibility as a magistrate, as I saw it, was to do what I considered best for the child, and my feeling was therefore that it would be better if it was a man and woman who were the adopted parents.”

In a video on the website of Christian Concern, which is backing his case, Page denied he was homophobic and claimed that more than 6,500 emails had been sent to the Kent NHS trust in his support against one complaint “from the LGBT people”.

He said: “This is the second public sector organisation that has got rid of me. This, I feel, is completely wrong because it’s discriminatory against my opinions and the fact I was doing what I considered to be right.

“The political correctness makes people be frightened, or makes them think they’re the only ones that believe this way, and yet they obviously are the majority … There are people standing up against the so-called politically correct views.”

Andrea Minichiello Williams, of Christian Concern, said freedoms in the UK were being “catastrophically eroded by political correctness and fear”.

“The comment that a child needs a mother and a father is a belief held by Christians, and many others around the world. Everything that Richard Page does, his whole belief system is rooted in his Christian faith. Beliefs arising from the Christian faith continue to be lawful beliefs in our country.”

She said government assurances that equality legislation would not lead to the removal of people who expressed Christian views while holding public positions had turned out to be baseless.

“If it is possible to suffer the detriment of losing your position at work for expressing lawful Christian views, the situation is crucial. There is, in effect, a religious bar to office for Christians solely; those politically correct institutions would not do the same to other faiths.”

A spokesperson for NHS Improvement said: “We are unable to comment on ongoing court cases.”

Former NHS director sues Jeremy Hunt for religious discrimination

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United kingdom religious leaders unite towards FGM

Lynne Featherstone, international development minister, said faith and community leaders were fundamental to efforts to end FGM. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

Religious and community leaders have signed a historic declaration condemning female genital mutilation, but said there are still barriers to ending the practice in the UK.

The Somali Bravanese Community, Muslim Women’s Network UK and the Church of England were among 160 groups to have voiced support for the declaration, which states that the practice is not supported by any religious doctrine. At a meeting in Westminster on Wednesday, they promised to take the message into their communities.

Norman Baker, minister for crime prevention, said the declaration– the first of its kind – was part of a push to win “hearts and minds” in the battle against FGM, which affects 125 million women and girls worldwide.

Baker said the summit was a “landmark moment”. “By bringing together religious and community leaders to forge a commitment to condemn this shocking practice, we are working to support communities to abandon the practice themselves.”

Asked if there was any resistance to the declaration Yousif al-Khoei, of Al-Khoei Foundation, said: “There are always some barriers, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. But the majority of scholars are against FGM, and already leaders from Somalian, Egyptian, Nigerian and other affected communities are signing up and are committed to change. They are taking this issue seriously, but it takes time.”

The Muslim Council of Britain has said it has launched its own campaign against FGM, but had not been contacted by the Home Office. “We were not asked by the Home Office to sign. Should the opportunity arise, we will,” said a spokeswoman.

The Home Office said the declaration was a voluntary charter, and it encouraged all groups to sign up.

The fight to end FGM has gathered pace in recent months, with the government introducing data collection by health professionals and launching awareness-raising campaigns.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service has brought the first FGM case to court. After pressure from a Guardian campaign, which won the support of 250,000 signatories, and the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Michael Gove, the UK’s education secretary, sent a letter to teachers in England and Wales warning them of the dangers of FGM.

Lynne Featherstone, international development minister, said that faith and community leaders, who will formally sign the declaration at a girls’ summit hosted by the prime minister in July, were fundamental in the fight to end FGM. “They have the power and the influence to bring about change in their communities and communicate the true harm that is caused by this practice,” she said.

FGM involves the removal of a girls outer sexual organs and can cause lifelong psychological and physical complications. An estimated 20,000 girls in the UK are thought to be at risk of the practice.

Sheikh Tayeb Mustapha Cham, imam and founder of the Taiba Welfare Foundation, said some imams still resisted condemning FGM, but religious leaders had a responsibly to speak out. “Before there were barriers when we talked, but now we can openly condemn [the practice]. Now it is only imams who are isolated from society who still support this practice. Together we can remove those barriers and say this is nothing to do with religion,” he said. “The voice [of religious leaders] will be heard, and if the advice comes from them, they will be obeyed.”

United kingdom religious leaders unite towards FGM

Religious campaign to halt EU abortion funding "lacks mercy"

A pro-life campaigner holds a model of a nine-week-old foetus at an anti-abortion rally in Malta, the EU’s smallest member state in terms of land mass, GDP and population. Photograph: Reuters

A religious-backed initiative to prevent EU aid money being spent on programmes that support abortion lacks compassion for women, the head of the International Planned Parenthood Federation has said.

Tewodros Melesse said the One of Us campaign, launched with the backing of the Catholic church, failed to prioritise women’s rights and judged women for taking control of their bodies. “A woman doesn’t have an abortion for fun,” said Melesse, in Stockholm last week for a meeting of parliamentarians to discuss progress on women’s rights across the globe.

“The reasons for having an abortion are not taken in consideration. They don’t care about the life of a woman. Because who takes care of that unwanted baby? Who will give her [the woman] support – mental and physical support? If they care about life, is a woman’s life not important? All religions tell us to be compassionate, merciful, but when it comes to women, it is rejection, judgment and a ‘know it all’ attitude. Where is the compassion for women’s lives?”

The One of Us campaign was launched in 2012 under the European Citizens’ Initiative. The ECI allows the public to propose legislation they would like the European commission to consider. Proposals require at least 1 million signatures from people living in at least seven member states. The One of Us campaign, one of the first proposals under ECI, attracted more than 1.7m signatures and the organisers presented their ideas to the European parliament this month.

The European commission has until the end of May to decide whether to act on the proposal. It is not expected to become policy, as its ambitions are at odds with European aid policies. Member states are also unlikely to want to reopen debates about abortion rights and stem-cell research. But campaigners are braced for further backlash against women’s rights directed at EU policy.

Those behind One of Us, an NGO with offices in Brussels, want to stop EU funding for any activities that involve the destruction of the human embryo, which would have an impact on organisations that receive money for family planning services, which can include abortion. The organisations that would miss out if this policy is introduced often provide a wider range of maternal health services, which in some countries offer vital support to governments trying to meet the UN millennium development goal 5 to reduce deaths in childbirth. The policy would also have ramifications for stem-cell research.

The campaign is heavily backed by organisations in Italy, Germany, France and Spain. No donors or specific partners are listed on the organisation’s website, but it is understood to be part-funded by the Italian pro-life organisation Fondazione Vita Nova. It is represented by Patrick Gregor Puppinck, director of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), an evangelical NGO based in Strasbourg. The ECLJ holds special consultative status at the UN.

An anti-abortion poster at a bus stop in Budapest. Hungary, the EU president, has come under fire from Brussels for using European money to fund a pro-life campaign. Photograph: AFP/Getty

The initiative has the hallmarks of the Republican-backed Mexico City policy introduced in the US under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and which was most recently implemented by George W Bush. It was rescinded by Bill Clinton and again by Barack Obama.

Research on the impact of this policy published by the World Health Organisation in 2011 found it had increased the number of abortions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and could have unintended and unrecognised health consequences. According to the news agency EurActiv, the UK government warned MEPs that this proposal would undermine international efforts to save lives.

A briefing note released by the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development said: “Having lost the battle against women’s rights in Europe, to advance the anti-choice agenda those behind One of Us have had to look for a different way and part of the world to promote their ideology and impose it on others. And they are attempting to instrumentalise the EU – specifically its development policy – in order to do so. Put simply, One of Us is an attempt to make the EU hold the world’s poorest women hostage until developing countries ban abortion.”

An estimated 50,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions. Medical termination of pregnancy is a highly contentious issue and strongly opposed by conservative religious groups and the Catholic church. Six countries have a total ban on abortion, and many others restrict it when a women’s life is at risk. Even when abortion is allowed, women often require permission from two or three medical officials.

Liz Ford travelled to Stockholm with the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development

Religious campaign to halt EU abortion funding "lacks mercy"

Religious campaign to halt EU abortion funding "lacks mercy"

A pro-life campaigner holds a model of a nine-week-old foetus at an anti-abortion rally in Malta, the EU’s smallest member state in terms of land mass, GDP and population. Photograph: Reuters

A religious-backed initiative to prevent EU aid money being spent on programmes that support abortion lacks compassion for women, the head of the International Planned Parenthood Federation has said.

Tewodros Melesse said the One of Us campaign, launched with the backing of the Catholic church, failed to prioritise women’s rights and judged women for taking control of their bodies. “A woman doesn’t have an abortion for fun,” said Melesse, in Stockholm last week for a meeting of parliamentarians to discuss progress on women’s rights across the globe.

“The reasons for having an abortion are not taken in consideration. They don’t care about the life of a woman. Because who takes care of that unwanted baby? Who will give her [the woman] support – mental and physical support? If they care about life, is a woman’s life not important? All religions tell us to be compassionate, merciful, but when it comes to women, it is rejection, judgment and a ‘know it all’ attitude. Where is the compassion for women’s lives?”

The One of Us campaign was launched in 2012 under the European Citizens’ Initiative. The ECI allows the public to propose legislation they would like the European commission to consider. Proposals require at least 1 million signatures from people living in at least seven member states. The One of Us campaign, one of the first proposals under ECI, attracted more than 1.7m signatures and the organisers presented their ideas to the European parliament this month.

The European commission has until the end of May to decide whether to act on the proposal. It is not expected to become policy, as its ambitions are at odds with European aid policies. Member states are also unlikely to want to reopen debates about abortion rights and stem-cell research. But campaigners are braced for further backlash against women’s rights directed at EU policy.

Those behind One of Us, an NGO with offices in Brussels, want to stop EU funding for any activities that involve the destruction of the human embryo, which would have an impact on organisations that receive money for family planning services, which can include abortion. The organisations that would miss out if this policy is introduced often provide a wider range of maternal health services, which in some countries offer vital support to governments trying to meet the UN millennium development goal 5 to reduce deaths in childbirth. The policy would also have ramifications for stem-cell research.

The campaign is heavily backed by organisations in Italy, Germany, France and Spain. No donors or specific partners are listed on the organisation’s website, but it is understood to be part-funded by the Italian pro-life organisation Fondazione Vita Nova. It is represented by Patrick Gregor Puppinck, director of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), an evangelical NGO based in Strasbourg. The ECLJ holds special consultative status at the UN.

An anti-abortion poster at a bus stop in Budapest. Hungary, the EU president, has come under fire from Brussels for using European money to fund a pro-life campaign. Photograph: AFP/Getty

The initiative has the hallmarks of the Republican-backed Mexico City policy introduced in the US under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and which was most recently implemented by George W Bush. It was rescinded by Bill Clinton and again by Barack Obama.

Research on the impact of this policy published by the World Health Organisation in 2011 found it had increased the number of abortions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and could have unintended and unrecognised health consequences. According to the news agency EurActiv, the UK government warned MEPs that this proposal would undermine international efforts to save lives.

A briefing note released by the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development said: “Having lost the battle against women’s rights in Europe, to advance the anti-choice agenda those behind One of Us have had to look for a different way and part of the world to promote their ideology and impose it on others. And they are attempting to instrumentalise the EU – specifically its development policy – in order to do so. Put simply, One of Us is an attempt to make the EU hold the world’s poorest women hostage until developing countries ban abortion.”

An estimated 50,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions. Medical termination of pregnancy is a highly contentious issue and strongly opposed by conservative religious groups and the Catholic church. Six countries have a total ban on abortion, and many others restrict it when a women’s life is at risk. Even when abortion is allowed, women often require permission from two or three medical officials.

Liz Ford travelled to Stockholm with the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development

Religious campaign to halt EU abortion funding "lacks mercy"