U-turn from comedy club after politician threatened legal action

The Stand Comedy Club has reversed its ban on MP Joanna Cherry appearing at its venue – after the politician threatened legal action.

Bosses say that after consulting their own lawyers they conceded that cancelling her Edinburgh Fringe appearance ‘as unfair and constituted unlawful discrimination’

And they have said they ‘publicly and unreservedly apologise to Ms Cherry’ – as her lawyers demanded in a broadside earlier in the week.

The Stand had pulled the in-conversation event with the SNP politician after staff refused to work on the event because of her views that some have branded transphobic, explaining: ‘We will not compel our staff to work on this event and so have concluded that the event is unable to proceed on a properly staffed, safe and legally compliant basis.’

Cherry – herself a senior human rights lawyer and a KC – disagrees with her party’s policy of letting trans people to legally determine their own gender, arguing it could undermine women’s rights.

In response to The Stand’s U-turn, Cherry tweeted this afternoon: ‘This is a very welcome move from The Stand and I forward to taking part in the show. I hope that the Stand's full and frank acceptance that to discriminate against me on account of the philosophical beliefs which I hold as a lesbian and a feminist was unlawful will benefit other women & men by discouraging others from similar discrimination in the future.’

Her lawyers had told venue bosses: ‘You cannot escape a finding of discrimination on the grounds that your staff objected or refused to work at the event. This has been established and reinforce many times over by the courts.’

The original letter from Glasgow-based lawyers Levy & McRae also claimed that a statement put out by The Stand about the cancellation was defamatory ‘as it clearly suggests that our client represents some form of danger or at least threat to people’s safety should the event proceed, as well as the clear implication that it would not be legally compliant.’

In a new statement issued this afternoon, The Stand said: ‘We believed it would be impossible to stage because a number of staff had expressed an unwillingness  to work on the day it was due to take place, citing their personal discomfort with some of Joanna Cherry’s views. Legal advice was taken before we reached this decision.

‘As has been widely reported, Ms Cherry said she was considering legal action as a result of this. This prompted us to seek further external legal advice from a separate firm of solicitors.

‘Having considered that new advice, we now accept that the previous decision that the event could not go ahead was unfair and constituted unlawful discrimination against Ms Cherry. We now publicly and unreservedly apologise to Ms Cherry.

‘We have sent a detailed response to Ms Cherry and her legal team and have spoken to the event’s promoters to confirm that we will be able to host the event as originally planned.’

‘The Stand will donate our Share of the profit from the event to one of our partner charities, Edinburgh Food Project.

‘The management of the event will be discussed with staff in the coming weeks.

‘We have always been clear that we oppose all forms of discrimination and recognise the rights of individuals to air views with which we may disagree. We hope that this apology draws a line under this episode and allows The Stand to get back to doing what it does best.’

Cherry tweeted her original legal letter:

And The Stand’s correspondence with Cherry’s legal team can be found here.

The chain of venues was founded by fellow SNP MP Tommy Sheppard, who is still a director of the company that runs it but is no longer involved in its day-to-day operation.

Published: 12 May 2023