A jury has ruled that the Green Party improperly fired a director in part because of his views on transgender rights, but that this was generally merely euphemistic and that parties are free to fire individuals if their opinions conflict with established policy.
Shahrar Ali, a former Greens deputy leader in England and Wales, started taking legal action last year after being fired from his position as the party’s home affairs and public safety director in February 2022.
Ali’s opinions on transgender issues—he has referred to the biology of gender as “real and immutable” —are at odds with the official stance of the party and have been the focus of previous internal disputes over the matter.
In 2021, Siân Berry resigned from her position as the group’s co-leader due to what she perceived to be a conflict between her support for trans rights and “the message sent by their choice of front-bench staff,” which was taken to refer to Ali.
Ali’s treatment had been randomly cruel, and it could not be ruled out that this was because of his views on transgender issues, according to a decision made on Friday by the London central and city state court. He received a £9,100 award for emotional harm.
Outside of court, Ali referred to this case as “a landmark case” and compared it to other new instances where it was discovered that people with “gender critical views” had experienced unfair discrimination. The decision itself was more ambiguous, though.
While Judge Stephen Hellman found Ali to be correct on one count, he rejected other complaints and stated that, while Ali’s dismissal was unfair and may have been based on his views, political parties are generally permitted to fire spokespeople for supporting non-party views as long as they do so fairly.
Ali, on the other hand, held a distinct stance, stating, “This is about the rights of women and children, as well as our right to be able to articulate, ventilate, and develop real debate on issues of great consequence without fear of overwhelming consequence within politics.”
“We are pleased that the judge has acknowledged that a political party has the right to choose spokespeople based on their ability to formally speak and support party policy,” according to Greens executive chairman Jon Nott.
“We applaud the conclusion that the Equality Act is not meant to tamper with political party members’ ‘fundamental group rights,’ which include the freedom to believe, to support and oppose policies and positions adopted or proposed within the party, and to organize for those who do.”
The party acknowledges that the process used to remove one of our representatives had some administrative flaws. “We apologize for not upholding the standards that the judge and we both expect in this situation.”
Ali has long run a trans critical campaign in the Green Party. He has received some support, but he has also received criticism.
He held the position of deputy leader from 2014 to 2016, then ran for the group’s leadership three times, in 2018, 2020, and 2021, coming in second in 2018 and last on the other occasions.
