How whistleblowers stood up for liberal women

Being a whistleblower is a difficult, often thankless task. Typically, a lonely pursuit that pits an individual against a more powerful organisation; it is not uncommon to become an outcast — painted as a “troublemaker” and criticised for being “disloyal”. It is an even harder pursuit in an organisation that has no whistleblowing process and whose default purpose is political tribalism. 

In reality, whistleblowers are the people who care so deeply about an organisation, the integrity of its purpose and actions that they press organisations to do the right thing. Thwarted by institutional inertia, general arse-covering and personal vilification, many bow out. But some fight on. 

This is the story of Liberal Voice for Women, a group of Lib Dem members campaigning for women’s single-sex spaces and sports, who blew the whistle, and who successfully changed the Liberal Democrats. 

Last year LVW filed a legal case against the Lib Dem Party for discrimination on the basis of their gender critical beliefs. The case was the culmination of years of letter writing about discrimination against LVW and its members. The party has no formal whistleblowing process and so our letters to senior leaders about various detriments — being banned from having stalls and adverts, being moderated out of Party platforms — normally fell on deaf ears. If we did get a reply, it was usually to dismiss our arguments with one senior leader using their reply to further traduce us. 

Within the Party, with little ability to defend our views, we have been depicted as “anti-trans” campaigners and vilified as a hate group whose views are akin to “white supremacy”. In reality we campaign to uphold single-sex exceptions in the Equality Act, such as female changing rooms and female sport. As we have patiently explained to Lib Dem trans activists, we want trans people to have the same rights as everyone else, just not additional rights. This means for example we do not believe male athletes have the right to identify into female sports categories, but female athletes, who identify as trans or non-binary are of course welcome in the female category. 

At the end of 2023 however, I recall feeling a deep sense of despair. I had just written to the Lib Dem regional chair who had refused us a regional conference stand telling her: “the discrimination against us shows no signs of abating.” She refused to change her mind or properly explain her decision to ban us, although she indicated to others we were too controversial and Ed Davey would be at the conference. I told the rest of the LVW executive that I didn’t think the Party would ever stop discriminating against us.

That is when we finally decided to seek legal advice.

Embarking on legal action was a nerve-wracking decision. The costs if you lose can be enormous — often paying the opposition’s legal costs. By pursuing legal action, we were making ourselves liable for up to half a million pounds. LVW’s vice-chair, Alison Jenner, agreed to be a named complainant with me and we took legal advice from the renowned Karon Monaghan KC. Our solicitor, Elizabeth McGlone helped guide us throughout and due to statute of limitations we found ourselves necessarily serving our case against the Party in May 2024. Due to the General Election, we granted the Party a 4-month stay, so they could campaign unimpeded by the case or any publicity about it. 

At the end of 2024 negotiations began in earnest for an out-of-court settlement. We were always clear we just wanted the discrimination to stop and to be treated equally. We self-funded the case to avoid the negative publicity of a crowdfunder for the Party, and I would like to thank all the LVW members who generously donated both their money, time and expertise to get us to a settlement.

Many readers may wonder how a party with “liberal” in its name found itself in the position of banning people and censuring them. After all, freedom of expression and freedom of belief are core tenets of liberalism. The Lib Dem preamble even states: “We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience… we reject all prejudice and discrimination based upon belief.” 

The political trans lobby in the Lib Dems however are a powerful, vocal group who have pushed “no debate” on the issue of sex-based rights for over a decade and have been appeased. Some have also pushed an interpretation of Equality Law which is erroneous but allowed them to justify their decisions internally. Although senior leaders know Lib Dem trans policies are not popular with Lib Dem voters, they also calculate few people will vote solely on this issue. In other words, whilst Lib Dems may lose some voters due to this issue, they are unlikely to lose any seats. 

The Party required a very good reason to overcome the inertia in tackling this lobby group, especially with trans activists on committees deciding who could have conference stands and with seemingly little to gain from the perspective of winning seats.

Letters alone would not do it. 

It was the legal case that unlocked the way forward. 

The financial cost to the Party of a legal case finally gave a sufficiently solid fiduciary reason to get proper legal advice and so for senior staff members to stand up to the trans lobby group and overturn activist’s discriminatory decisions on legal and financial grounds.

The Party President Mark Pack (now Baron Pack) was unequivocal at Autumn conference that he regretted and was unhappy about the decision to finally allow LVW a stall, continuing to pay homage to the trans lobby who have supported him; but even he conceded that the cost of losing a legal case meant the Party had little option but to allow LVW a stall — in other words, to follow Equality Law.

We believe our settlement marks a welcome return to liberal values after an era of authoritarianism and censure

As part of the settlement, the CEO of the Party was clear in his letter to LVW that the Party would not discriminate against the organisation or its members going forward. The letter states: “The Liberal Democrats recognise that Liberal Voice for Women is entitled not to be discriminated against in respect of the lawfully held protected beliefs (as defined in the Equality Act 2010) of its members. I am writing to confirm that Liberal Voice for Women will be treated in the same, consistent manner as other organisations made up of Party members in all relevant matters. Not doing so would be clear, unlawful discrimination.”

We believe our settlement marks a welcome return to liberal values after an era of authoritarianism and censure on this matter and we hope our case helps gender critical members in other political parties navigate this issue. We are thankful to the senior officers within the Lib Dems who helped us reach this positive settlement with the Party which we hope will also embed a better understanding of the Equality Act. We would urge any members who have left the Party on this issue to rejoin, for it is only as members that we can influence policy including on internal committees and voting at conference.   

To other whistleblowers out there — good luck in your endeavours. “It always seems impossible, until it’s done.”