Bromley Borough Council has incorporated free speech protections for councillors into its constitution. This follows a decision earlier this year to enshrine free speech in all its policies and procedures.
As a result, the Council’s Code of Conduct now states: “The right to free speech under the law is the basis of democracy and will be upheld at all times and there is no right to be offended by any lawful speech.”
That’s great news – but it didn’t come about by accident. The FSU has been working for months with Bromley councillor Simon Fawthrop to draft these protections.
The target of the new formulation is the vexatious HR-style investigation into politicians with lawful but ‘offensive’ views: something that’s all-too-easy to mount when codes of conduct – as they often do – treat politicians like employees rather than democratically elected individuals duty-bound to represent their constituents.
Bromley Council’s updated code will check this tendency, bringing its constitution into line with UK law, where lawful interference with political speech must meet a higher threshold than for other types of expression.
But after years of local authorities getting free speech wrong, this is only the beginning. We anticipate that Bromley will inspire many other councils to realise they too can protect free speech – and now have a precedent for making it happen.
If any councillors would like their council to adopt a similar policy, please contact the team at: [email protected].
