Mayoral candidate dismissed by housing employer for Christian beliefs

Jul 19, 2022 by

from Christian Concern:

A Christian mayoral candidate for a London borough has launched legal action after being sacked by her employer for expressing Christian beliefs on marriage as part of an election manifesto.

Maureen Martin, 56, from Lewisham, London, is now being supported by the Christian Legal Centre. She was dismissed by her housing association employer, L&Q, for gross misconduct following three complaints. The case is believed to be the first of its kind to see a political candidate sacked by their employer for their Christian beliefs.

Miss Martin had worked for L&Q as a housing manager for 13 years with an unblemished record and had good relationships with LGBT colleagues and service users in her non-customer facing role.

Standing for the Christian People’s Alliance (CPA) since 2015, Miss Martin had previously had nomination papers signed by a previous line manager without issue, and in January 2022 had declared her role with the CPA on her employer’s register of interests.

On 18 April 2022, Miss Martin, as part of her election campaign to become Mayor of Lewisham, had posted her manifesto to residents throughout the borough.

In the manifesto, Miss Martin, who is an ordained Christian minister and President of the CPA, had outlined her political position on fly tipping, knife crime and tax, and on marriage she had written:

Marriage: I pledge to cut through political correctness and simply state the truth that natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children.”

The words were taken almost exactly from the CPA’s election manifesto.

Following the publication of the manifesto, an image of the leaflet was posted on Twitter suggesting the manifesto “broke the law” and was “hate speech.”

Miss Martin’s Twitter account was searched, and it was discovered that Miss Martin was employed by L&Q, which was not stated in her manifesto.

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