Vice President J.D. Vance has called out Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for the “infringements on free speech” in the United Kingdom to his face, as he pledged he would do in an exclusive interview with Raheem Kassam, Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse, earlier this month.
“[W]e… know that there have been infringements of 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, so that is something that we’ll talk about today at lunch,” the Vice President said at a media event alongside Starmer and President Donald J. Trump.
“We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in, in, the United Kingdom, and, uh, uh, it will last for a very, very long time,” Starmer stammers in response. “Certainly, we wouldn’t wanna reach across U.S. citizens, and we don’t, and that’s absolutely right,” he adds.
Britain does not, in fact, have free speech, with British citizens regularly being arrested, charged, and sometimes imprisoned for various speech crimes. These include sending “grossly offensive” messages and, in at least one case, simply sharing “a social media post containing inaccurate information.”
The country’s previous Conservative Party government explicitly rejected a petition for a Free Speech Act abolishing “hate speech” laws and bestowing First Amendment-style protections on British citizens, claiming that “The Government is committed to upholding free speech [but] this freedom cannot be an excuse to cause harm or spread hatred.”
Britons’ theoretical right to free speech is based on the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 10 of the Convention bestows a theoretical right to “freedom of expression” but notes that this right can be abridged “in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Contrary to Starmer’s claim that British speech restrictions do not extend to American citizens, England’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, threatened to try to extradite foreign nationals for online speech crimes in 2024.
WATCH:
Breaking:@JDVance reiterates his concerns on free speech in the UK Europe in front of the Prime Minister.
Starmer responds that he is “very proud” of the UK’s free speech record and that we have had it “for a very long time”.
…not sure how many would agree. pic.twitter.com/Y5omiwoREV
— Alex Armstrong (@alexharmstrong) February 27, 2025