Farage: Starmer is greatest threat to free speech in Britain

Reform UK leader accuses Prime Minister of wanting to use recent far-Right riots to restrict civil liberties

Sir Keir Starmer poses the “biggest threat to free speech” in British history, Nigel Farage has claimed.
The Reform leader accused the Prime Minister of wanting to use the recent riots in Britain to restrict civil liberties amid concerns about the impact of potential new regulation.
Sir Keir is considering placing a duty on social media companies to restrict “legal but harmful” content, while children as young as five will be taught to spot fake news online.
After the Southport stabbings last month, Mr Farage speculated whether the “truth is being withheld” amid speculation online about the identity of the suspect.
Far-Right riots in the Merseyside town were sparked by false claims online that the killing of three young girls was carried out by an asylum seeker who arrived in Britain last year.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Mr Farage said: “Nobody should use any social media platform to genuinely spread hate or incitement to violence, and that free speech rule I think all of us would support and agree with.
“But what we are allowed to do on social media, or should be allowed to do, is to speculate, is to ask questions, is to try and put facts out, to put facts out that wake up the rest of the community.
“And when you’re engaged in something like that, you can never, ever guarantee that what you say is 100 per cent true… Now Starmer, by cracking down on that, poses, I think, the biggest threat to free speech we’ve seen in our history.”
Mr Farage added that while he was a believer in critical thinking, he was concerned about the way in which it could be taught to schoolchildren.
“If the parameters that are set are to 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 Labour Party are to use this crisis to take away our liberties and our free speech, and this is going to have to be fought.”
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, has said schools will use lessons including English and ICT (information and communication technology) to “arm” pupils against “putrid conspiracy theories”.
The remarks by Mr Farage come after a row between Sir Keir and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of social media giant X, over the response to the riots.
Mr Musk has repeatedly criticised the Prime Minister and suggested some groups have been treated more harshly than others by calling him “two-tier Keir”.
Tyler Kay, 26, was last week jailed for three years and two months after he used social media to call for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set alight.
A mob of far-Right demonstrators turned up outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham on August 4, chanting “we want our country back” and throwing missiles at police.
The rioters smashed several ground-floor windows and attempted to set the hotel on fire, torching bins and using them to blockade the exit while people were still inside the building.
Mr Musk claims the sentences given to Kay and William Morgan, a 69-year-old sentenced to two years and eight months for violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon, were “messed up”.
Asked whether he was worried he could be arrested in a crackdown on disinformation, Mr Farage replied: “Yeah, exactly. And this is why I think this is incredibly dangerous.
“All I did was to say ‘please tell us the truth’. Funnily enough, if they had told us the truth, the rioting would not have been anything like as bad as it was, and the authorities need to wake up to an online world.
“So yes, I am currently coming under serious assault, and many of the campaigners on the Left are publicly saying that I should be arrested simply for asking to know the truth about the murderer. So yeah, I’m worried.”