A magistrate who opposed same-sex couples from adopting a child was sacked today after he was found to be “biased and prejudiced” against them.



Last year Richard Page was reprimanded after saying he believed it was “natural and in the interests of a child to be brought up by a mother and father”.

In addition to being a magistrate, he also works as an NHS manager in mental health services.

A statement from the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) said:

The Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice found Mr Page’s comments would have caused a reasonable person to conclude he was biased and prejudiced against single sex adopters and they considered this to be serious misconduct which brought the magistracy into disrepute.

But UKIP (Update: now ‘independent’) MEP Janice Atkinson rushed to his defence today, issuing a statement saying he was within his “Christian human rights”.

I am a defender of freedom of speech and thought. I am not against gay marriage, nor gay adoption, nor do I have any faith myself, but I will defend Mr Page’s Christianity and others’ religious views as they are guided by their beliefs and thousands of years of doctrine, not by the pernicious thought police who now run our institutions.

This is a direct result of the Blair years, when he and his lawyer wife, pushed through the Human Rights Act, which included a clause about hate crime.

This is also firmly the view of the EU and its institutions. I sit on the gender committee that pushes through legislation to recognise 60 types of gender and shuts down debate that puts an alternative family or religious view. This is against Mr Page’s human rights as a Christian. At a time when we are pushing for more Muslim integration and being asked to take further Muslim migrants, I wonder whether the same judgement would be issued against them if they sat as magistrates?

Blaming Blair, the EU, Human Rights Act and Muslims in one statement is quite a feat.

Has anyone checked if Christian Human Rights are enshrined into legislation?