Legal challenge over sex education row

A councillor has launched a legal challenge of sanctions made against him after he raised concerns regarding a family event held at a library featuring sex education objects including anatomical models of genitalia.

Michael Fife Cook, leader of the Reform UK group on Devon County Council, was found to have breached the council's code of conduct when he questioned whether council officers could "be trusted in safeguarding children" following the Out There Queer Fest event at Exeter Library.

The Free Speech Union is representing Fife Cook in a potential judicial review of the decision by the council's standards committee.

Devon County Council has not commented on the legal proceedings.

Sex education objects including anatomical models of genitalia appeared at the "family-friendly" Out There Queer Fest event held in October 2025.

In an email seen by the BBC, Sharpe Pritchard, the legal firm acting on behalf of Fife Cook, has written to the county council setting out its opposition to the standards committee decision and calling for a response by 14 October.

It claims the decision was "irrational", that it breached Fife Cook's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and that it "failed to give adequate reasons for its decision".

Fife Cook said: "The things that were shown in the library were not appropriately aged for the children that were in there."

Defending an email in which he raised concerns about council officers, he said: "You must never automatically trust everybody - it's a foolish situation to be in.

"If I'm not allowed to dispute the decisions made by officers whom we employ - what am I in the room for?"

Fife Cook is requesting an apology from Devon County Council and from the Standards Committee, which is made up of eight council members from various parties and four members of the public.

If the matter does go to judicial review it is understood it could cost Devon County Council hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal costs if they lost the case.

Fife Cook said: "I don't want anybody in this county to waste money on such ridiculousness but equally, they set out to damage me.

"If you allow paid officers to stop your representatives from speaking up there's no point in your representatives being there.

"This has to do with silencing councillors and that's why the fight's worthwhile."

In response to the threat of legal action, a spokesperson for Devon County Council said: "It would not be appropriate for us to comment at this time."

Lord Young of Acton, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said penalising Fife Cook for raising safeguarding concerns "beggars belief".

He said: "Surely, the council officials that gave permission for this event to go ahead at a family library – described as a 'bold celebration for LGBTQIA+ young people and friends' – are the ones guilty of bringing the council into disrepute?"

He added: "Councillors must be free to speak up about issues of concern to their constituents without risking being put through a disciplinary process by town hall Sir Humphries wearing rainbow-lanyards."

Devon County Council carried out an investigation into the event at the library, which is run on the council's behalf by Libraries Unlimited.

The letter from Sharpe Pritchard refers to an email sent by Steve Brown, the council's director of public health, to Fife Cook, in which he says the council was "satisfied that all Libraries Unlimited's processes and procedures, including safeguarding and risk assessment, were followed prior to and during the event".

In the email Brown said Libraries Unlimited had "taken this opportunity to review practise and did identify a number of considerations and improvements that would be applied to future events where appropriate".

He added: "Given the learning, and opportunities to amend aspects of the delivery of any future events, alongside related statutory duties and guidance, the council is likely to support future similar events. It may well be deemed discriminatory not to do so."

In his response to that email, which was sent to all councillors and to Brown, Fife Cook said: "I think this makes it clear our council officers can't be trusted in safeguarding children..."

In his response Fife Cook said the council's approach "makes us all complicit in promoting and encouraging sexualisation of children" and said "to allow future events like this in property owned by the public will be rightly deemed as reprehensible and we will all be at fault".

According to the Sharpe Pritchard letter, on 1 December 2025, Brown and the council's director of children, Julian Wooster, put in a code of conduct complaint against Fife Cook.

They claimed several breaches including a failure to treat others with courtesy and respect, bullying and bringing the council into disrepute.

In its meeting in July the Standards Committee found Fife Cook had failed to treat others with courtesy and respect and had brought the council into disrepute.

Fife Cook was cleared of breaching standards relating to allegations relating to bullying, compromising the impartiality of the council and causing the council to breach a statutory duty.

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