A Christian running for mayor in the London Borough of Lewisham has been dismissed as a housing manager after setting out her beliefs on marriage in her election manifesto. It was unrelated to her employment.
Maureen Martin, who is 56 and had been employed for 13 years by L&Q Housing Trust before being sacked for gross misconduct, is taking her employer to court for unfair dismissal and discrimination. L&Q houses more than 250,000 people in the south east.
As part of her mayoral election campaign, Ms Martin – an ordained Christian minister – posted her manifesto to Lewisham residents this April. Her manifesto covered diverse areas including tax and knife crime and, on marriage, she stated: ‘…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’.
Ms Martin is president of the Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) and her statement on marriage was almost identical to that in the CPA election manifesto. After posting her manifesto, she was accused on social media of being ‘bigoted’ and expressing hate speech. Despite just three complaints being made directly to her employer, L&Q told her that her tweets and her manifesto were ‘homophobic, had breached L&Q’s social media policy and had potentially brought the company into disrepute.’ When it became clear she would still stand for mayor, Ms Martin was accused of failing to declare political activity. She was suspended for bringing the company into disrepute and subsequently dismissed.
