KEMI Badenoch backed Donald Trump yesterday as she declared that free speech in the UK is “at risk”;.
The Tory chief warned that cops should not be “persecuting people for expressing themselves”; after the US State Department slammed the case of British woman Livia Tossici-Bolt, who allegedly breached a buffer zone around an abortion clinic.
Ms Tossici-Bolt was holding a sign saying “here if you want to talk”; outside the Bournemouth clinic and was taken to court over accusations she breached the Public Spaces Protection Order.
The verdict for her case is due on Friday.
In a rare intervention over the weekend, the Trump State Department posted on X: “US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“However, as Vice President JD Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”;
On Tuesday Ms Badenoch said: “We have freedom of expression in this country, we have free speech in this country.
“However it is at risk because a lot of people are expanding the law way beyond the original intention.”;
In February, Vance ripped into Britain over free speech and attacked Europe's immigration policies.
He said: “When I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War's winners.
“And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, theUnited Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
