Kemi Badenoch says Brits must ‘fight’ for ‘under threat’ free speech
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says free speech is “under threat” because the law has “overreached” while policing people’s opinions.
Her comments to the Sunday Telegraph come in the wake of US vice president JD Vance’s claims freedom of expression was “in retreat” across Britain and wider Europe.
Status quo
Ms Badenoch urged Britons to “fight” for free speech, saying she supported those “questioning the status quo”.
“Free speech is precious – and under threat. We must fight for it. It challenges dangerous orthodoxies and sparks change,” she said.
Ms Badenoch – who also said she “hates cancel culture” believes the Government has overstepped while trying to keep people from “perceived” harm.
“Rules to protect people from ‘perceived’ harm have overreached. Being upset or offended shouldn’t be the state’s concern,” she said.
“Silencing free speech harms democracy, culture and individual resilience. Without free speech, false ideas thrive unchallenged.”
The vice president’s comments were made to the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
Mr Vance claimed the erosion of free speech posed a greater threat to the UK than Russia or China.
He also criticised the UK over a legal case in which a former serviceman who silently prayed outside an abortion clinic was convicted of breaching the safe zone around the centre.
Basic liberties
In a wider attack on what he suggested is a shift away from democratic values across Europe, JD Vance claimed the “basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular” are under threat.
He referred to the conviction of Adam Smith-Connor, 51, who had denied doing so but was found guilty last year of failing to comply with a public space protection order at the centre in Bournemouth in November 2022.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Mr Vance said that the US’ “very dear friends the United Kingdom” appeared to have seen a “backslide in conscience rights”.
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The irony is that many on the right want to be rid of the ECHR which is the only institution protecting free speech in the UK.
Mad as a box of frogs this one.
Only things I can think about which have taken away freedom of speech in the UK are the 2022 Police, Crime and Courts Act and the 2023 Public Order Act – both of which restricted protests, and freedom of speech. As you can see by both dates, both she introduced as part of the last government!
Gone by Easter me thinks
The Conservative government brought in arrests for people who supported the Palastine people and blamed Israel for mass genocide.
There are no threats to free speech except from the far right.
There is a difference between persuasion and intimidation.
Do the free speech advocates in the Tory party still want the Police to arrest legally assembled protesters who sing “From the river to the see”?
This conservative leader is so bad it makes Stammer look almost plausible. We should not fight for free speech it’s our right. It’s your job to ensure our rights are up held. A herd of donkeys would do a better job than the useless bunch of idiotswe currently have in Westminster.
She’s just another Trump groupie. Not a useful idea in her head. Her PMQ performance has been woeful. When she asks a question and Starmer answers it, she looks at a script that has been prepared in the expectation that he won’t and yells “He hasn’t answered the question”. Autocue politics.
The Right have such conflicted ideas about what constitutes freedom of speech…
Their position seems to be that [their peculiar version of] Christianity and Judaeism are protected and everyone else can go to hell. Especially Non-Whites, Gays, Trans people and liberals.
Elon-snowflake-Musk and the putrifying remains of Twitter being the prime example.
Personally, I’m perfectly happy with the current arrangements – with the exception of not being able to criticise the Israeli government without being called an anti-semite.
Since Trump refused to accept the democratic will of the American people in 2020 who are they to lecture others on freedom and democracy? Most Europeans have collective memories of authoritarian oppression from the last century; Nazism, Fascism and Communism. They understand the values of freedom and democracy more so than the average American. I’ve lived in the states and all it takes for an authoritarian law to pass would be to paint the stars and stripes on it and portray it as ‘freedom’. Someone should remind Badenoch that she is supposed to be standing up for British values and… Read more »
Free speech doesn’t mean you can say and do anything. It comes with responsibility. And actions have consequences. You always hear the right-wing lament their lost of free speech but are happy to stop others. For example. I cannot go on social media and leave a post saying to my followers, “everybody, let’s rise up and enter Llantrisant Royal Mint to take back our taxes. Wales doesn’t get it’s fair share. Who’s with me?!” What do you think would happen to me or my followers. Go on. Try it. I dare you. I wish those so-called exponents of free speech… Read more »
Ah more weird free speech conspiracy nonsense from an absolutely pointless entity. We have a perfectly functioning freedom of speech, it’s a freedom from consequence that they have issue with.
If the extreme right succeed in abolishing the echr, they’ll be in for the shock of their lives when they try to speak freely.
She spent want to defend free speech. She wants to encourage hate speech and deny right of reply to it