The judge said the level of compensation reflected the fact the discrimination was not “a one-off or an isolated incident and it is likely to have had a significant impact on Ms Bird”.
She noted Ms Bird was not prevented from returning to work, and so the sum made allowances for the unfair process involved in her removal but not for her lack of progress in her political career.
The judge said any higher compensation could put her in line with someone who had suffered scarring or permanent loss of vision and “it seems to me that the loss of feeling cannot be compared to the loss of an eye”.
The judge added: “Political parties are entitled to choose candidates who support party policies and remove those who disagree with the policies.
“They cannot be expected to choose those who publicly disagree and undermine party policy.”
Ms Bird said she was called “an Illiberal Terf”, suspended from the Lib Dems and banned from standing as an MP for a decade.
Terf stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.
Ms Bird wore the T-shirt bearing the words “Woman: Adult Human Female” in the days after she was nominated as the Lib Dem candidate for Wakefield in December 2018.
Soon afterwards she received a letter suspending her membership and notifying her there would be a formal disciplinary hearing against her for breaching the party’s code of conduct.
Ms Bird did not see the suspension letter as she was on her way to a meeting of the Wakefield District Liberal Democrat Club where she was turned away and told to leave.
She described this as “an extremely humiliating, embarrassing and upsetting experience”.
An offer of £40,000 was made to settle the case but it was “never properly engaged with” by Ms Bird, the court heard. She will receive 90% of her costs which have yet to be set.
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