JD Vance Calls Out UK Prime Minister To His Face Over Free Speech Infringements

Vice President J.D. Vance called out British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to his face during a Thursday press conference over the infringement on free speech in his country.

The vice president told Europeans to stop intentionally censoring free speech, expression and more of their “most fundamental values” during a Feb. 14 speech before the Munich Security Conference, which sparked some backlash among European leaders. During Starmer’s visit to the White House, Vance said the British government’s “infringements” on free speech have sparked concerns over its impact on U.S. technology companies and American citizens.

“I said what I said, which is that we do of course have a special relationship with our friends in the U.K. and also with some of our European allies,” Vance began. “But we also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect, not just the British, which, of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them, but has also affected American technology companies and by extension, American citizens. So that’s something that we’ll talk about today at lunch.”

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Starmer then said that the United Kingdom has had free speech for a “very, very long time” and that it will remain for years to come.

In response to violent riots that broke out in the summer of 2024, the prime minister vowed to expand facial recognition surveillance to curb protests and violent riots and warned social media companies to combat so-called misinformation on its platforms. The U.K. has since implemented