Kristie Higgs wins groundbreaking court case after unfair dismissal

A Christian was unlawfully dismissed from her role as a school pastoral worker after she criticised LGBT relationship education on her social media, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Lord Justice Underhill made clear that dismissal merely because the employee ‘expressed a religious or other protected belief to which the employer, or a third party with whom it wishes to protect its reputation, objects will constitute unlawful direct discrimination within the meaning of the Equality Act’.

Kristie Higgs, now 48, was sacked by a Gloucestershire secondary school in 2019 after she made social media posts expressing her concern about the content of sex education and transgender ideology in primary schools. The school was not mentioned in her posts, however a parent complained to the headteacher that Kristie had expressed ‘homophobic and prejudiced views’.