Pro-Brexit views not protected from workplace discrimination, tribunal rules

However the tribunal found that these were not beliefs that were protected by the Equality Act. Wanting to leave the EU was an opinion rather than a philosophical belief that fell under equality laws, the judge said.
Dismissing Fairbanks’ claim, the employment judge, Paul Jumble, said: “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.

“Despite some probing, both by the tribunal and in cross examination, no coherent belief or set of beliefs was forthcoming. On balance, the tribunal found that the claimant had genuinely held opinions and views but she did not convince the tribunal that she had any underlying philosophical belief.”

The hearing in Manchester was told Fairbanks started working for Change Grow Live as a recovery worker on 10 October 2022. She was a councillor in Wyre, Lancashire, for Ukip between about 2017 and 2019, and a colleague told her manager about this in February 2023, the tribunal heard.

Fairbanks claimed she was “bullied and harassed” thereafter. She was sacked from the job, based in Fleetwood, Lancashire, in July 2023 because of offensive posts she shared on X, though she denied that one of the accounts they came from belonged to her.

Employment tribunal decisions are not binding legal precedents but they can help shape the law.