Despite draconian laws that punish people for expressing themselves, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer lied about his country’s terrible free speech record during a White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Thursday.
A reporter asked Starmer for a response to Vice President J.D. Vance’s recent comments condemning free speech violations in Europe. Trump redirected the question to Vance first.
“I said, what I said, which is that we do have, of course, a special relationship with our friends in the UK and also with some of our European allies,” Vance said. “But 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 it also affects American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens. So that is something that we’ll talk about today.”
Starmer responded as if free speech is sound as a pound in the UK.
“We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in in the United Kingdom and it will last for a very, very long time,” Starmer said. “In relation to free speech in the UK, I’m very proud about our history there.”
Starmer was asked about free speech again in an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, and he doubled down on his lies, saying, “We don’t believe in censoring speech. But of course we do need to deal with terrorism. We need to deal with pedophiles … We champion free speech in the United Kingdom. In relation to the measures we’ve taken, we’re very mindful that is shouldn’t have an impact on U.S. citizens.”
But Starmer has nothing to be proud of as the UK has been trampling on free speech rights for years.
Free Speech In Retreat
Thursday’s comments from Vance and Starmer come after the powerful speech Vance delivered at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, in which he spoke to European Union leaders about the “threat from within.”
“I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscious rights has placed basic liberties in the crosshairs,” Vance said in that speech. He pointed to the example of Adam Smith-Connor, a man who prayed silently in front of an abortion business.
“Not obstructing anyone. Not interacting with anyone,” Vance said. “After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Smith-Connor replied simply it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.” He was charged and found guilty of breaking the government’s buffer zones law criminalizing silent prayer and other actions that could influence a woman within 200 meters of an abortion business.
In October, Vance noted, the Scottish government sent letters to citizens who lived in so-called “safe access zones.” The letters warned that private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law. “Naturally, the government urged readers to report fellow citizens suspected of thought crime,” Vance said. “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
The Scottish letters said, “activities in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary of a Zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the Zone and are done intentionally or recklessly.”
Federalist writer Tristan Justice wrote about beloved Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s protest of the Scottish Hate Crime Act, which criminalizes “stirring up hatred,” and makes it punishable for people to behave “in a manner that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive or insulting.”
Father Sean Gough, a Catholic priest, was arrested in 2023 for standing silently at a closed abortion business with a sign reading “praying for free speech.” He also had an “offensive” bumper sticker, “Unborn lives matter.” He was interrogated by police and criminally charged, according to the Standing for Freedom Center.
UK pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has been arrested twice for silent prayer outside an abortion business.
Federalist writer Jordan Boyd wrote in 2022 about British veteran Darren Brady, who was arrested in his home for reposting a meme featuring the LGBT “pride” flag shaped like a swastika. When arrested, he was told, “someone has been caused anxiety based on your social media post. That is why you have been arrested.”
In August, two men were jailed in the UK for social media posts that officials claim led to an attack on a hotel full of refugees. Starmer ordered courts to expedite cases to “deliver swift justice to deter others from taking part in what he called ‘far-right thuggery,’” the Associated Press reported.
The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act of 2014 allows the creation of local laws called “public spaces protection orders” (PSPO) in public places to protect the quality of life. Authorities may prohibit specified things being done in the restricted area or require specified things to be done by persons carrying on specified activities in that area.
“Several cities have used this law to place ‘buffer zones’ around local abortion clinics,” Reason reported in October. “The PSPO in Smith-Connor’s case not only banned ‘intimidating or harassing’ those working at or seeking services from the clinic but also barred individuals from engaging in ‘prayer,’ ‘[sprinkling] holy water on the ground,’ and ‘[crossing] themselves.’”
The UK has a website where neighbors can report annoying neighbors for loud music, barking dogs, or visitors at late hours.
The UK has also enacted the Online Safety Act, which imposes a legal responsibility on social media platforms to protect users by performing “risk assessments to identify illegal content or harmful material and to take appropriate risk mitigation and prevention measures.” The UK government will oversee this work. In a November National Law Review article, Suzanne Cater of the UK Office of Communications promises “2025 is the year of action … This is where we’re really going to see a huge uptick in that [enforcement] work.”
Nearly 300 people have been charged in the UK for online speech crimes since October 2023, according to The Telegraph, and 67 have been convicted for their words.
This is censorship, not free speech.
It probably isn’t safe to say this in the UK anymore, but Starmer is lying. By his own rules, he should be arrested for causing anxiety among his own citizens who are now afraid to express their beliefs. Vance defined the problem: freedom is slipping away in Europe. But like so many leftists, Starmer refuses to engage in an honest conversation. He prefers control.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
