A Catholic librarian sacked after she criticised a local council for handing a multi-million pound construction contract to a state-owned Chinese firm is to take her case to employment tribunal.

Maureen O’Bern, who worked at Leigh Library, Greater Manchester, for 34 years was suspended then fired when she objected on social media to the involvement of Beijing Construction Engineering Group International (BCEGI) UK in a £135 million redevelopment of the Galleries, a defunct shopping arcade in Wigan town centre.