When Keir Starmer entered Downing Street last year, ministers delighted in proclaiming that “the grown-ups are back in charge”. How times change. The Prime Minister quickly regressed to a policy of smearing anyone who disagreed with him as “far-right”. Now his Science Secretary, Peter Kyle, is getting in on the act, offering a strikingly juvenile take on political opposition — suggesting that anyone who thinks the Online Safety Act might be a touch draconian, with few meaningful protections for lawful free speech, is effectively siding with paedophiles.
“If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that,” Kyle declared on X. A few hours earlier, during his tour of the various morning TV sofas, he made clear that his target was the leader of Reform UK, a party that has promised to repeal the legislation — although the implications for other thought-criminals weren’t difficult to discern.
He told Sky News: “Nigel Farage is on their side,” in reference to “extreme pornographers peddling hate, peddling violence.” He then went further still, invoking the case of Jimmy Savile: “If people like him were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side.”
Farage, not unreasonably, condemned these remarks as “disgusting” and accused Kyle and the Labour Party of using “the memory of Savile’s victims for political gain”. He demanded a public apology, asking: “Just how low can the Labour Government sink in its desperation?”
Kyle, undeterred, stood by his comments across multiple media appearances.
In fact, not content with smearing Farage, he later joined BBC Breakfast to issue a veiled warning to any internet users considering bypassing the Act’s age-verification provisions: “For everybody out there who’s thinking about using VPNs, let me say this to you directly: verifying your age keeps a child safe. It keeps children safe in our country, so let’s just not try to find a way around.”
That’s right. Dissent from government policy and you’re a paedo enabler. Or far-right. Or both. Welcome to the world of grown-up politics, Labour-style.
At a press conference following Kyle’s remarks, Reform officials described the Act as a censorship mechanism designed to protect those in power. Former chairman Zia Yusuf argued that the legislation does “absolutely nothing to protect children” and merely works to “force social media companies to censor anti-government speech”.
Farage concluded his response to Kyle’s repeated smear by urging supporters to take direct action. “I’ve asked for an apology, we’re not going to get one,” he said. “I think perhaps the best thing we can do is to sign the petition to repeal the Act. I’m deeply worried about the implications for free speech.”
If you’d like to sign that petition, click the button below.
