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 several digital speech laws that regulate what is defined as hate speech, misinformation or harmful content.
The U.K. also threatened to arrest and extradite U.S. citizens who made any online statements that could allegedly cause violence, according to CBS Austin.
A British army veteran was arrested in August 2022 for denouncing LGBTQ and transgender activists online, which authorities said caused somebody “anxiety.” More than a dozen British citizens were jailed in August 2024 for allegedly causing “unrest” on social media, while two citizens were sentenced to over a year in prison for stirring up “racial hatred” online, the BBC reported.
British law enforcement officials have arrested and fined its own citizens for so-called hate speech during protests and for prayer in restricted zones. Adam Smith-Connor, a military veteran and father, got arrested and later convicted in the U.K. for silently praying within a “buffer zone” surrounding an abortion clinic, causing him to pay 9,000 euros in prosecution fees.
Vance spoke out against Smith-Connor’s arrest during his speech to the Munich Security Conference, stating that the British government had impeded on “the basic liberties of religious Brits.”
“And perhaps most concerning, I look to our dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Brits in particular in the crosshairs,” Vance said. “A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes. Not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.”
A 61-year-old man named David Spring was sentenced to 18 months in prison in August 2024 for chanting “who the f*** is Allah” at a right-wing protest.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/The White House)
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