❓WHAT HAPPENED: The U.S. State Department released its annual Human Rights Report, highlighting serious and growing restrictions on freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The State Department, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government in the United Kingdom, and individuals targeted by the British government for their speech.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The report was released on August 12, 2025, with the relevant sections focusing on events in the United Kingdom.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Societies are strengthened by free expression of opinion, and government censorship is intolerable in a free society.” – State Department Press Secretary Tammy Bruce
🎯IMPACT: The report underscores growing concerns about free speech collapsing in Britain.
The Trump administration has raised concerns about the collapse of free speech protections in the United Kingdom, warning that government censorship is becoming more widespread. In its annual Human Rights Report, the U.S. State Department cited “credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression” in Britain, adding that the situation had “worsened” in 2024 following Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s election win last July, returning the leftist Labour Party to power for the first time in 14 years.
The report criticized the United Kingdom’s controversial Online Safety Act, which allegedly aims to tackle harmful online content, such as child pornography, but has drawn criticism for stifling political speech on issues such as immigration. It also examines the British government’s response to the mass murder of young children by the son of two asylum seekers in Southport, England, accusing officials of using the incident to suppress speech.
While not named in the report, Lucy Connolly, a former childminder and wife of a Conservative Party councillor, was reportedly of interest to the White House. Connolly was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for a post on X after the Southport killings, in which she wrote: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f***ing hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it, take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.”
Critics claim her sentence is part of a “two-tier justice” system, with some voices facing harsher consequences than others for speech. For instance, Salman Iftikhar, a Pakistani businessman with the British equivalent of a green card, received only 15 months for physically accosting a white air stewardess and telling her she would be “dragged by [her] hair” from the specific hotel where cabin crew were staying and “gang raped and set on fire”. He added that “the white sheep-shagging bitch will be dead. The floor of [her] hotel will be blown up and it will disappear.”
The U.S. report also referenced Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old veteran convicted in 2023 for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in memory of his aborted son. His case was cited by Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he warned that Britain was facing a “crisis of censorship.”
State Department Press Secretary Tammy Bruce said: “We consider freedom of expression to be a foundational component of a functioning democracy,” adding: “Societies are strengthened by free expression of opinion, and government censorship is intolerable in a free society.”
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
