An employment tribunal has ruled that supporting Brexit does not qualify as a protected belief under equalities law in the United Kingdom. This decision came in the case of Colette Fairbanks, a former UK Independence Party (UKIP) councilor, who claimed she was unfairly dismissed by the non-profit Change Grow Live, which specializes in drug and alcohol support services.
Fairbanks was terminated after sharing supposedly offensive social media posts about immigration. She argues that her support for Brexit and her opposition to illegal immigration were philosophical beliefs, protected under Britain’s Equality Act, and that her employer had harassed and bullied her based on her political views.
However, employment judge Paul Jumble disagreed. “There has to be a distinction between a philosophical belief and a strongly held opinion. If, for example, ‘wanting to leave the EU’ was held to be a philosophical belief, then more than half the British electorate would have a belief that fell within [equality laws], which could not be the intention of the legislation,” he argued.
Jumble claimed Fairbanks had demonstrated “no coherent belief or set of beliefs,” merely “genuinely held opinions… [without] any underlying philosophical belief.”
