‘Unlawfully’ cancelling campaigner’s talk cost city council more than £10,000 in legal fees
‘SETTLEMENT’ FOR AUTHOR, ORGANISERS AND TICKET HOLDERS AMOUNTED TO LESS THAN £600
NOTTINGHAM City Council spent more than £10,000 in legal fees and more than £500 in compensation after it unlawfully cancelled a talk by activist Julie Bindel at one of its libraries.
Feminist campaigner Ms Bindel was informed by the Labour-run council that her talk at Aspley Library had been cancelled because of her views on transgender rights one day before it was due to take place on June 25.
Represented by employment lawyers Didlaw, she then took legal action against the authority, having raised just under £40,000 through a Crowdjustice campaign. Her legal team drafted a letter to the council saying she would be taking legal action under both the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998. After three months of correspondence, the parties reached agreement on mutually acceptable terms, including an apology.
In October, the city council apologised to Ms Bindel and admitted it had acted “unlawfully” in cancelling her talk, which had been organised by Nottingham Women for Change, which describes itself as a “women only activism, education and empowerment” group.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service spoke to Ms Bindel and her lawyers, and submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the council. It revealed that the council spent £10,680 on legal fees and provided a £569.99 “settlement”.
The council said the £569.99 sum was paid to Ms Bindel, the organisers and ticket holders “in respect to their reasonable losses”. Ms Bindel said she had not asked for compensation and they were given “out of pocket expenses incurred.”
The council said it is now “taking steps to ensure that such a decision is not taken in this way again”.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ms Bindel said: “I’m a socialist so I would never take money from a cash-strapped council. I wanted to teach them a lesson. I wanted them to know they were wrong. I wanted the ticket money to be put back to the women who had paid out. It was £5 per ticket and for those women, £5 is a lot.
“I am a lefty, lesbian feminist and they said I was not a suitable speaker. I did not want to take a penny from a struggling Labour council. We could have screwed them into the ground, but they will have spent a lot of money on legal defence.”
According to the council, its library services department had been made aware of the “speaker’s views on transgender rights” when it chose to cancel the talk.
Ms Bindel herself said it had been cancelled over “alleged transphobia”, but argued she had intended to speak about violence against women and those who are socially disenfranchised.
Some of her views on gender have been a cause for controversy, with a Guardian column from 2004, titled “Gender Benders, beware”, receiving hundreds of complaint letters. The title of the column and its contents, along with her views on transgender rights, have been heavily criticised by some advocacy groups.
Elizabeth Mcglone, partner and solicitor at Didlaw, said: “It is the right outcome. I think the city council took the wrong approach de-platforming Julie Bindel. The outcome was proportionate and paves the way for other councils being inclusive across the board.”
The city council apologised to Ms Bindel and Nottingham Women for Change in a statement released in October, admitting its decision to cancel the event was “procedurally unlawful”.
Ms Bindel said she will be returning to the city “in the new year” and added: “They [the city council] should have caved in when we first wrote to them and issued the same statement they should have given us four months earlier.”
Responding to the FOI request, a city
council spokesman said: “Having accepted that our decision to cancel the event Julie Bindel was due to speak at was procedurally unlawful, we apologised to her and Nottingham Women for Change for the inconvenience caused and agreed to make payment to them and ticket holders to address reasonable losses they incurred. “We are taking steps to ensure that such a decision is not taken in this way again.”
I would never take money from a cashstrapped council. I wanted to teach them a lesson. Julie Bindel