Scientist forced out of top-secret base over gender-critical views wins legal victory

A former Government scientist who was treated like an “al-Qaeda” supporter for upholding the reality of biological sex has won a two-year legal battle.

Peter Wilkins, who is a Christian, was forced to resign from the top-secret Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down in November 2022, after officials ignored workplace harassment he faced out of an “unblinking desire” to appease trans activists.

An Employment Tribunal concluded that Wilkins had to leave his role due to the “hostile and intimidatory environment”, and the DSTL are reportedly expected to pay substantial damages.

Harassment

The Tribunal heard that Porton Down’s Head of Counterterrorism Paul Kealey pushed staff to pick a side on issues such as a new conversion therapy law and the Gender Recognition Act.

But Kealey told Wilkins that although he could hold gender-critical views, it was “not OK to express such views in the workplace”.

Wilkins raised concern over several posts on an internal blog, which labelled gender-critical views as “abusive” and claimed that those who uphold them lead “sad pathetic little lives”.

But senior staff did not stop the harassment. When Wilkins liked a post on LinkedIn by women’s group Sex Matters, he said he was flagged as a security risk “in the same way as if I was expressing support for the provisional IRA or al-Qaeda”.

‘One-sided’

Wilkins explained: “It’s a scientific organisation, so it shouldn’t be unacceptable to use the phrase biological sex. I was never looking for DSTL to endorse my beliefs, or for anything to be said against people on the other side of the debate. But it just felt very one-sided.

“And it was pretty hurtful, really, having spent 15 years working for DSTL on some things which were high-security, to be told that we think you’re a security risk because you have these fairly normal, run-of-the-mill, factual beliefs about sex and genders.”

Bryn Harris, Chief Legal Counsel at the Free Speech Union, which supported the case, said: “They’re meant to be fighting world wars not culture wars.”