Lambeth Council Registrars Accused Of “Swapping Shifts” To Avoid Conducting Gay Weddings

Two registrars from Lambeth council are under investigation after allegedly informally re-organising rotas to ensure that they didn’t have to conduct any civil partnership ceremonies claiming that they didn’t do it because it went against their religious beliefs.

Exposed after a registrar for the council apparently used it as example during a talk as part of a ‘diversity training’ seminar to demonstrate good practice and a gay member of the staff reported it to the  council’s chief executive, Derrick Anderson, the case was then taken up by Liberal Democrat councillor Brian Palmer, who himself had a civil partnership at Lambeth in 2005, who wrote to the leader of the council Steve Reed questioning if he was aware that registrars were “apparently circumventing Lambeth’s publicly stated equalities standards and the law by refusing to conduct civil partnerships”

Responding to Palmer’s complaint , Labour leader Steve Reed said that the council would definitely not tolerate any such bigotry and has said that he has spoken to the chief executive to ensure all members of staff were aware of their ‘ “contractual obligation to provide services equally to all residents who are entitled to use them and to ensure all managers are making this happen”

Via Daily Mail / Photo credit: Jeff Belmonte