An employment tribunal is this week hearing the case of a Christian social worker who says his job offer was withdrawn unless he agreed to "embrace and promote" LGBTQ+ rights.

Felix Ngole, 45, applied via Touchstone Support for the position of a mental health support worker at Wakefield Hospital. 

After being offered the job, he was told that his Christian beliefs did not "align" with Touchstone's as an "inclusive employer" and that he posed a risk to the organisation's reputation, according to the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which is supporting his case. 

CLC said that the change of heart came after Touchstone learned of Ngole's 2019 landmark court victory in his case against the University of Sheffield. The court ruled that Ngole had been unlawfully removed from a postgraduate social work course at the university for describing homosexuality as a sin in a Facebook post. 

Informing him about the withdrawal of the job offer, Touchstone said it had "identified some significant areas for concern regarding your suitability for both the role and Touchstone as an organisation".

The email cited his "very strong views against homosexuality and same sex marriage, which completely go against the views of Touchstone, an organisation committed to actively promoting and supporting LGBTQ+ rights".

Ngole is claiming discrimination, harassment and compensation for injury to feelings and a recommendation from the tribunal that Touchstone amends its recruitment procedures to ensure that Christians are not excluded from its workforce.

Speaking ahead of the hearing at Leeds Employment Tribunal this week, Mr Ngole said he would not deny his faith in order to get a job. 

"The reasons they gave for withdrawing the job offer were an attack on me and my faith. They made it seem that 100 per cent of the people I would be helping would be LGBT, and that I had to pledge allegiance to the LGBT flag and forget about my Christian beliefs," he said. 

"It is untenable for employers to be allowed to discriminate against Christian beliefs in this way and to force individuals to promote an ideology that goes against their conscience in the workplace.

"There was no mutual respect, and no tolerance and inclusion of me and my beliefs whatsoever.

"If we get to the point where if you don't celebrate and support LGBT you can't have a job, then every Christian out there doesn't have a future. You can study as much as you like, but you will not have a chance.

"The UK is no longer the country I heard about all those years ago when fleeing Cameroon. The UK then was a bastion of free speech and expression.

"I have no choice but to pursue justice again because if this is happening to me it will be happening to Christians and individuals from all beliefs and backgrounds across the country."

CLC chief executive Andrea Williams said: "Telling an employee that they must 'embrace and promote' homosexuality as a condition of employment sets a dark and troubling precedent. If left unchallenged it would see Christians who manifest their beliefs barred from working in the NHS and other institutions.

"What we see here is the confident totalitarianism of an organisation that has been captured by Stonewall and will do anything to keep their Stonewall ranking as high as possible.

"Viewpoint discrimination is escalating in the UK at an alarming rate. We have seen in the recent cases of high street banks denying Christians and free speech advocates the right to a bank account how far organisations captured by Stonewall are prepared to go. Anyone who does not comply and celebrate LGBT ideology must become a 'non-person.'

"The Court of Appeal judgment in Felix's case against the University of Sheffield was a major development of the law and must be upheld and respected in current and future Christian freedom cases."