Christians sue Eric Pickles for £25K after block on conference promoting heterosexual marriage
The organisers of a major conference defending traditional marriage are suing the Government after they were barred from an official building because they allegedly breached ‘diversity’ policies.
The conference, whose high-profile speakers included David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ guru Phillip Blond, was cancelled at the last minute by the Government-owned Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Central London after organisers were told it was ‘inappropriate’.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is now facing claims for £25,000 for breach of contract and religious discrimination, according to legal papers seen by The Mail on Sunday.
The organisers of a conference supporting heterosexual marriage now plan to sue Eric Pickles because they were allegedly banned from an official building for breaching 'diversity' policies
The legal action may prove particularly embarrassing for Mr Pickles, whose department is responsible for the centre, as he has robustly defended the rights of Christians to express their faith in public.
The conference promoting heterosexual marriage was organised by the campaign group Christian Concern along with a non-religious American organisation called the World Congress of Families (WCF), whose supporters include former President George Bush.
Guest speaker: Faith commentator Cristina Odone
Entitled One Man, One Woman – Making The Case For Marriage, For The Good Of Society, the event, a response to Government plans to introduce gay marriage, had a line-up of speakers including Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Conservative Party’s oldest think-tank the Bow Group, and the commentator and former Catholic Herald editor Cristina Odone.
The conference had been moved to the Queen Elizabeth II Centre near Parliament after solicitors’ representative body The Law Society, which had been due to host the conference at another venue, said it contravened the organisation’s ‘ethos’.
However, on May 22, the day before the rearranged conference was due to take place, the centre’s chief executive, Ernest Vincent, told Christian Concern he was cancelling the event.
According to the legal documents, he said it was ‘inappropriate’ and when pressed added that certain comments on the WCF website were contrary to the centre’s diversity policies. The website describes marriage between men and women as the ‘sole moral context for natural sexual union’.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: ‘The department has had absolutely no role in the cancellation of the event and this is ultimately a matter for the management of the QE2.’ Mr Vincent said: ‘We don’t as a matter of policy comment on clients’ files.’
Christian Concern founder Andrea Williams said the centre had earlier hosted a conference by gay-rights organisation Stonewall. She said: ‘It would seem that the centre does not extend the same hospitality to Christian groups.’
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