Edinburgh Council pays damages for cancelling religious speaker

Edinburgh Council has apologised and paid £25,000 in damages to Destiny Ministries after cancelling its three-day conference due to the religious beliefs of a guest speaker.

The conference was to be held in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall last summer.

The council cancelled it after receiving a complaint about views held by guest speaker Larry Stockstill.

The council accepted it did not take into account the church’s rights under human rights and equality legislation.

Mr Stockstill, a Louisiana-based preacher, had made previous comments on marriage and sexuality that were said to be based on Biblical study.

Andrew Owen, of Destiny Ministries, said: “We hired the Usher Hall in 2020 to run our Surge Conference but the council mistakenly decided to cancel our booking for reasons that related directly to our religion and belief. We were shocked by this.

“We asked the council to change its decision but it would not.