Keir Starmer defends free speech in the UK after JD Vance doubles down on ‘infringement’ claims
Keir Starmer responded to JD Vance’s claims on the UK’s freedom of speech rights. (Carl Court – Pool/Getty Images)
Keir Starmer has defended free speech in the UK after JD Vance doubled down on claims that the Human Rights Act had been “infringed” upon.
In the Oval Office on Thursday (27 February), the British Prime Minister addressed the Vice President after he claimed that “infringements of free speech” were affecting American companies and citizens.
The Vice President said that the “special relationship” between the countries was important, but noted that he did not want Americans to be affected by the UK’s stance on freedom of speech.
Vance said to Starmer: “We also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British — of course what the British do in their own country is up to them — but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens.”
To this, Starmer responded that the British government “wouldn’t want to reach across U.S. citizens, and we don’t, and that’s absolutely right”.
He added: “In relation to free speech in the U.K. I’m very proud of our history there. We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom and it will last for a very, very long time.”
The Prime Minister added to Fox News: “We actually had some exchanges today about things like freedom of speech. We got on very well, by the way.
“We had a really good discussion over lunch and I made clear we’ve had freedom of speech in the United Kingdom for a very very long time and we guard it preciously.”
The discussion comes during an international debate regarding tech and social media regulation in the UK’s Online Safety Act. Starmer said that the UK government does not “believe in censoring speech, but of course we do need to deal with terrorism. We need to deal with paedophiles and issues like that”.
He continued: “But I talked to the vice president about it today and we had a good exchange about it. And of course, he’s right to champion free speech. We champion free speech in the United Kingdom.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan previously weighed in on the debate after saying that President Trump is “absolutely” welcome to visit the UK so “he can see there is no threat to freedom of speech in this great city of ours”.
How did this story make you feel?
