Nigel Farage brands Keir Starmer ‘biggest threat’ to free speech UK has ever seen
The Reform UK leader has torn into the PM after the Government announced new plans to ‘spot extremist content' online.
Nigel Farage speaks to Fox News about freedom of speech online
Nigel Farage has blasted Sir Keir Starmer as the biggest threat to freedom of speech in Britain that the country has “seen in our history”.
Speaking to Fox News yesterday, the Reform UK leader tore into new proposals by the Government to teach children to spot extremist content online, warning it could prevent future generations from having any right to question mainstream narratives around immigration and net zero.
Mr Farage also compared the Prime Minister’s response to recent right-wing violence to his ‘taking the knee’ in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when police officers were also attacked.
He accused Sir Keir of reacting much more harshly now it is white working class Britons causing violence on the streets.
Insisting he is not defending violence in any way, Mr Farage defended his right to ask questions about the Southport suspect following the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
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He warned any restrictions on this freedom would represent “the biggest threat to free speech we’ve seen in our history”.
Mr Farage praised X owner Elon Musk, who has spent the last week entering into a war of words with the British Prime Minister and accusing him of enforcing two-tier policing.
Mr Farage said: “Elon Musk has caught wind of this. I think the reason that Musk has been going for Starmer over the last week, is he knows what the reaction is going to be."
The Reform UK MP added: “Worse still, there is a proposal today that from the age of five years old, our kids in schools should be taught to spot extremism, to spot fake news and misinformation, and to use their powers of critical thinking to work out what's true and what's not.
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"Now, by the way, I believe in critical thinking. However, if the parameters that are set, and I say to every kid: ‘If you read a post that questions net zero and global warming, it will be extreme content and a lie’; 'If you read a post that even dares to question levels of immigration, legal or illegal into Britain, that that's extremist’, then you start to set a narrative for a future generation that is fundamentally undemocratic.
“So I am very worried that the instincts of a left wing Labor Party are to use this crisis to take away our liberties and our free speech, and this is going to have to be fought.”
Mr Farage’s clip of the Fox News interview received a reply from X owner Elon Musk adding: “True.”
Speaking on Times Radio this morning, Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly warned that Labour “has a long tradition of overreach in terms of freedom of speech and civil liberties”.
Mr Cleverly said he is not comfortable with “some of the calls I’ve heard more recently and some of the examples that I’ve seen where people would fear that debate, legitimate debate, and disagreement becomes policed, and that we have some kind of social censorship by the backdoor”.
“We also have to be very, very careful that we don’t turn into an oppressive police state.
"The Labour Party has a long tradition of overreach in terms of freedom of speech and civil liberties and I don’t want to see that happening again."
