Sir Keir Starmer has been accused by a US Congressman of “attacking free expression” after a damning report exposed Britain’s “copycat censorship laws”.
Speaking to GB News, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan hit out at the Prime Minister for his “concerning” move to “limit political speech” by attempting to protect children online.
In a report published on Tuesday, the US Committee on the Judiciary said the European Commission is heading up a global push to impose “strict digital censorship laws”, with the UK’s Online Safety Act singled out as the most prominent attempt to replicate Brussels’ approach.
The report name-checked the Prime Minister as it delivered a stinging verdict on Britain’s “copycat censorship laws”, warning of a “direct threat” to free speech.
Discussing the report on GB News, Mr Jordan said: “In the UK it’s the Online Safety Act and in the EU it’s the Digital Services Act, and they’re all trying to restrict American companies and maybe just as important, American speech, so that’s the concern.
“It’s like, hey, look, we want free expression everywhere, but if you want to do it to folks in your own country, OK, go ahead. We don’t like it, it’s not good, but do that.”
He made clear: “But when it impacts American companies, like the fine now on X, American companies, 120 million euros, I think is the fine that’s been levelled, because they don’t like the content moderation policies at X for goodness sake, that’s not how it works.
“And when it infringes on American speech, that’s a problem because we have this thing called the First Amendment.”
Jim Jordan has hit out at Keir Starmer for ‘limiting American free speech’
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GB NEWS / PA
Suggesting what the potential “repercussions” could be for the UK if they press ahead with such legislation, Mr Jordan said: “I think it’s trade agreements in the end. Vice President Vance came to Europe last year and talked about this, other people in the Trump administration have talked about this, President Trump has talked about this.
“When we talk about trade, the United States is a pretty big trading partner with just about everybody that has significance, and so I think that could be the implication. I’ll leave that up to the administration.
“What I care about is what’s happening to American companies and to Americans’ ability to speak their mind and the speech that they always go after is political in nature.”
Asked whether he believes there is a “decline in free speech” in Britain, Mr Jordan highlighted the case of comedian Graham Linehan.
The report said Sir Keir Starmer is ‘threatening to take X offline in the UK’ | PA
The Congressman said: “Well, tomorrow we’re having Mr Linehan, the comedian who did a tweet, I think while he was in the United States, gets on a plane, lands at Heathrow and he gets arrested because the speech patrol didn’t like what he said, what he tweeted. That’s ridiculous.
“That could have been an American, which was even more concerning, but just the attack on free expression.”
He recalled: “I will never forget, we had Rupa Subramanya, a journalist from Canada, testify last Congress in our committee and she said statement I’ll never forget, she said ‘the hallmark of Western culture is free debate, free expression’.
“And when you limit it, and it’s always on for some good reason, we don’t want kids getting a hold of bad information, we get all that. But that’s always used as the pretext to limit political speech every single time, and that’s our concern.”
Mr Jordan told GB News that restricting American speech could become a ‘problem’ for US-UK trade
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GB NEWS
Graham Linehan was arrested at Heathrow Airport in September last year over social media posts about transgender issues.
Mr Linehan is set to appear before the US Congress this week, where he will accuse Sir Keir Starmer of diminishing free speech in Britain.
In a statement, a No10 spokesman said: “The PM was very clear in his meeting with the President that the UK has a proud history of freedom of speech and that will endure.
“That continues to be our position.”