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The Green Party discriminated against its former deputy leader Dr Shahrar Ali as a result of his “gender critical” beliefs, a court has found.
Ali was dismissed as a sporesperson for policing and domestic safety by the party in February 2022, with officials saying his “controversial” views on trans issues did not align with the party role.
The Green Party said he was in breach of the party’s Spokespeople Code of Conduct.
But today the Mayor’s and City County Court awarded £9,100 in damages to Ali after finding that the Green Party had improperly dismissed him.
The Green Party discriminated against its former deputy leader Dr Shahrar Ali as a result of his “gender critical” beliefs, a court has found
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The court found that the party had failed to identify any misconduct.
Speaking outside the court, Ali demanded the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigate the Green Party over its handling of debates on trans rights.
He also called for an independent inquiry into “the hostile environment in political parties across the left”.
Ali said: “The current Green Party of England and Wales is out of control.
“Parties are not beyond the law when it comes to seeking to discipline their representatives in accordance with their own rules for alleged misconduct.”
The Green Party said it “acknowledges that there were procedural shortfalls in how we deselected one of our spokespeople”.
“We apologise for failing in this instance to live up to the standards that both we and the court expect”, it added in a statement.
Ali’s removal was deemed to have been “procedurally unfair”, because the Green Party had failed to identify any breaches of the Spokespeople Code of Conduct at the time of his dismissal.
But the judgement found that political parties are entitled to remove spokespeople if they hold beliefs that are “inconsistent with party policy”, as long as they do so through fair procedures.
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Ali posted the above image on his social media after the court case concluded
X/@ShahrarAli
Cade Hatton, co-chair of the LGBTQIA+ Greens group, said: “We must be able to rely on our most visible members – our spokespeople and elected representatives – to both hold up the ethos and the democratically chosen party policies that support the most vulnerable members of our society.
“We hope that everyone involved feels they have gotten what they needed out of this case, but sadly under our judicial system and with the complexities of this issue, this is rarely possible.”
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