Lorna Young v Manchester City Council, Employment Tribunal, May 2026

[Mmmnotsure]

Lorna Young is taking her former employer, Manchester City Council, to Employment Tribunal. The case began today. It is being live tweeted by Tribunal Tweets https://x.com/tribunaltweets
and coverage is also available on their Substack
https://tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/lorna-young-vs-manchester-city-council

Lorna Young was Equality Team Manager at MCC. She was dismissed, among other grounds, for her social media activity.

Lorna Young is gender critical and Catholic, and opposes surrogacy. She is claiming unfair dismissal, and discrimination and harassment because of religion or belief, and disability.

Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) | nitter.poast.org
for non X-ers

Thank you, I didn’t know about this.

Thank you. I must send TT a bob or two.

Thanks for the heads up - will be following

Thanks - good to know. But sad that yet another woman is having to use the law to protect her rights.

I hadn't heard of this one but I had heard of another GC complaint involving MCC although I don't think it is public / tribunal stage yet. Interesting if there is actually more than one.

Tribunal Tweets:

‘LY claims:
(a) Direct discrimination because of religion or belief;
(b) Harassment related to religion or belief;
(c) Discrimination arising from disability;
(d) Harassment related to disibility;
(e) Unfair dismissal.’

TT:

‘Abbrevs:
LY or C - Lorna Young, the Claimant
MCC or R - Manchester City Council, the Respondent
NR - Nathan Roberts, counsel for C
Aileen McColgan KC - counsel for R
AP - C's solicitor at Leigh Day
AM - Aileen McColgan KC, counsel for R
AP - Annie Powell of Leigh Day, C's solicitor
GC - gender critical
GI(T) - gender identity (theory)’

TT:

‘The employment judge for this hearing is EJ Dunlop’

I googled the judge: ‘The Lord Chancellor, The Right Honourable David Gauke MP, has appointed Joanne Elizabeth Dunlop to be a Salaried Employment Judge of the Employment Tribunals (England and Wales). Joanne Elizabeth Dunlop will be assigned to the North West Region in the principal hearing centre Manchester with effect from 16th September 2019.’

www.judiciary.uk/appointments-and-retirements/appointment-of-a-salaried-employment-judge-of-the-employment-tribunals-england-and-wales-dunlop/

This judge doesn’t mince her words. I found this from one of her other cases:

“I make no bones about the fact that I had not (and have not) read every
word of Mr Wlochinski’s rebuttal document nor, indeed, of the underlying
documents in the bundle in reaching that decision. Much of what is
contained in his correspondence, and in his rebuttal document, comprises
bombastic legal hyperbole with little reference to the substantive facts of
this case. Whilst superficially erudite, it lacks reasoning and is endlessly
repetitive. I suspect – although of course I have been unable to ask Mr
Wlochinski [he didn’t turn up to the hearing] – that it results at least in part from a use of AI generated
material with little attempt to edit or filter the result. It is not a proportionate
use of Tribunal resources for a Judge to spend the hours and hours that it
would take to engage with such a document on a line-by-line basis.”

Ouch.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/694172d62d5e7e8632537547/Mr_G_Wlochinski_v_English_Lakes_Hotels_Limited_-6035029_2025-_Judgment.pdf